Last Train
by nikki.ntm
Summary: AU. In an attempt to start over, Axel kidnaps his best friend and flees the ghettos of Kobe. His brothers are sent after them under the Superior's orders, but for reasons Axel could never have imagined.
1. Hell's Highway

**Title:** Last Train  
><strong>Author:<strong> nikki_ntm  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> Shattered Apocalypse  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> 1/20  
><strong>Genre<strong>: Drama/Adventure/Suspense  
><strong>Rating:<strong> M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.  
><strong>Setting:<strong> Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N:** First I just wanna thank my beta reader. This is a monstrously big piece with a "main pairing" that isn't that popular in this fandom, but she accepted it anyway *-*  
>I've been working on this piece for quite some time with research and the likes. There are a few words in Japanese, not in dialogue, mind. Most Japanese words are explained in the narrative, the only word that isn't described is <em>genka<em>. _Genka_ is a small hallway right by the entrance to the house where you take off your shoes and change into slippers.

Anyway, comments and reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1: Hell's Highway**

**~ooo~**

**Four years earlier**

**~ooo~**

Axel reached for his glass of water as the three judges entered the courtroom after recess. The benches behind him were filled with people waiting for the conviction. He had tried to see if Saïx was there, but the only representative from the family was Lexaeus and he had chosen to sit at the back to not draw attention.

He knew that he was going to jail. He had confessed to the crime, his fingerprints were on the murder weapon and the family wanted someone to pay.

"Before dealing with the business at hand, I would like to remind everyone how important it is to honour the decorum of the court and remain quiet after the verdict is rendered." The judge sitting in the middle looked at the crowd from behind his glasses and then back onto his papers.

"In the case of the murder of Ienzo Fujiwara the suspect, Lea Connolly, has pleaded guilty. This court has reviewed the forensic evidence and has taken into account the testimony of the witnesses as well as the factors to be considered determining credibility."

The wait was killing him. How many years? That was all he wanted to know. He didn't need all the formalities around it; he just needed a number to get an idea of how long he would have to cope with this decision.

He had used his only phone call to speak with Larxene to try to explain to her what had happened, why he hadn't showed, but there was no answer from her. Axel sighed and reached for his glass of water again to have a sip. He just had to keep reminding himself of why he was doing this and nothing else.

"Lea Connolly has been found guilty on the count of manslaughter and is hereby sentenced to three years in federal prison."

A buzz of displeasure broke out amongst the spectators who wanted Axel to be hung until death, but Axel seemed completely oblivious to it as he turned to the lawyer that had been chosen for him with a look of awe on his face. He had expected five years at least.

"What's this?" He asked in a whisper as the judge tried to silence the spectators.

"Haven't you been paying attention, Mr. Connelly? Your punishment was alleviated due to the circumstances."

"What circumstances?"

"Self-defense."

Axel looked forward as the judge managed to silence the masses. What happened now didn't really matter. Axel was still trying to melt the fact that he had pleaded guilty for the murderer of Zexion, the man who had been up for the spot as the second in command, the man who he had responded to until that night, and gotten away with three years. A shiver ran down his spine. This had to be Xemnas' doing.

As he was cuffed by the police officer that was going to escort him out of the courtroom, Axel looked to where Lexaeus had been sitting and saw that there was only an empty seat there now. He paled as he prayed that these three years wouldn't be as tough as he feared.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

The lights were going green and the long line of cars started to move slowly down the jammed road. Axel sat in his gray Toyota Prius with no air conditioner, shaking his left leg impatiently. It was in the middle of summer and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky to save them from the sun, whose mission was to roast every driver on this street. He was an exit away from this godforsaken city, away from Kobe and its depressing ghettos he once had called home.

"C'mon, c'mon. Move."

The lights turned red a car away from the open road. Axel held back a groan and sank down into his seat, glancing into the backseat discreetly when a police officer passed by on a bicycle. He dried off the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve and turned on the radio, hoping to find anything that would calm his nerves.

"It's going to be very hot in Kobe today! It's only 11 A.M and our thermometers show that it's 31 degrees outside. We advise you to avoid the traffic jams on the main roads, especially in Shinkobe. Drink a lot of water and don't stray from the shadows. Stay tuned for the latest single from the Johnny's phenomena NEWS!"

Axel looked in the rear-view mirror to make sure that his passenger hadn't woken up yet. Out of all the stupid things he had done in his life this probably took the cake. In less than 24 hours he had become a refugee, stolen a car and kidnapped his best friend. Why was he doing all of this? He had been living quite a comfortable life as the _wakagashira__'__s_ bodyguard within the yakuza. He lived in a big house in a nice neighborhood, he drove a nice car and he could afford very nice clothes. Occasional killings and extortion aside he lived a very good life. There was only one small problem that had been bothering him lately. Somewhere along the way he had grown a conscience and with that came a backlash of nightmares, guilt trips and the biggest taboo of them all; questioning the boss' orders. Axel had already lost a third of his right-hand pinky and he was afraid of what his boss would like him to cut off for kidnapping his right hand man and turning his back on the only family he had known since the age of fourteen.

"And I thought jail was bad…"

The car in front of him drove off the second the lights turned green and Axel followed suit. He could see the exit to the Hanshin Expressway and as he turned his blinkers on, he felt that the palms of his hands were all moist from the heat in the car. The traffic lightened once he was on the Hanshin Expressway. He wasn't sure where he was going, he just knew that he had to get as far away from the yakuza stronghold as possible. He had been thinking that leaving Japan would be the best idea but it wasn't safe to go to the airport and it would be difficult to go by unnoticed with a fainted person tossed over his shoulder. The idea now was to get to Shimonoseki and maybe take the ferry to South Korea.

Saïx had a nasty bruise that was shifting into a darker shade of purple on his forehead; Axel was responsible for it. His best friend was not going to come with him willingly and Axel had made it his mission to make the right decisions for Saïx until he realized that what Axel was doing for him was for the best, even if that meant beating him unconscious. He had tied Saïx's hands behind his back, his feet were tightly tied together too, and he had put a piece of duct tape over his mouth just in case. Saïx wasn't the screaming type in a situation like this, he was more likely to find a way to untie himself and give Axel the beating of his life.

An hour into the drive Axel began to relax, he even hummed along with the brainless bubble-gum pop on the radio while taking in the sights. As the bodyguard of a high profile gangster he never got much time to explore his surroundings unless he was in the red light districts or in a secluded _ryôkan_. Axel had left Kobe a few times in his life; he had gone to Kyoto and to Tokyo while on duty and truth to be told it was the same shit with a different name. It was nothing like the landscape before him now. There were suburbs alongside the Hanshin Expressway that reminded him of the city, but in the background there were high mountains with greenery that almost stretched all the way to the top. He could see the nature and the clear blue sky.

Saïx started to move around in the back with a low moan. Axel kept glancing at the rear-view mirror and lowered the volume on the radio a bit, he was certain that Saïx would have the mother of all headaches and he didn't want to give him more reasons to be upset right now. He didn't seem all too pleased to be tied up and muffled. Saïx gave up after fifteen seconds of squirming and tossing with a loud sigh. He lay still for a while and he was oddly quiet. Axel tried to catch a glimpse of him in the rearview mirror again but was distracted by the hard kick against his seat instead.

"Easy," he said with a laugh and gripped the wheel tighter. "The headache will be gone before you know it and one day you'll thank me for doing this."

Saïx kicked the seat even harder this time.

"Okay, sure. Fair enough. I could've used chloroform or maybe asked you nicely but that wouldn't have been me, right?" Axel knew that there was a third kick coming and he rolled his eyes. Saïx should know better than to throw a tantrum. He wasn't the first unwilling passenger Axel had had in his car.

Axel turned his attention to the GPS-screen and squinted to see if there were any rest stops nearby. It was only two miles to the first rest stop. When the fourth kick came Axel decided to speed things up a little. He hadn't come this far to drive off the road and get himself killed.

The rest stop consisted of a diner, five vending machines and a parking lot. The parking lot was pretty much deserted and they hadn't even gotten to Chûgoku Expressway yet. Axel parked the car as far into the parking lot as he could and was glad to see that there was a big garage that blocked the view from the diner. He didn't need nosy and bored workers meddling. He was drawing attention by just being here. He turned to look at Saïx and sighed at the foul glare he received.

"Listen, there's no point in making a fuss about this. I made sure to leave enough evidence to make them believe that you're an accomplice and if you try to contact our boss or any other family-member they will shoot you down like the traitor they think you are." Saïx didn't seem to give a rat's ass about what Axel did or did not do. "You'll thank me one of these days. This is for the best and I know that you'll come around and realize it too once you've chilled out a bit – you might want to start doing that now 'cause...I think you're turning red." Axel snatched away the piece of duct tape and folded it into his pocket with a worried look on his face.

"Fuck you," Saïx hissed. He had clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles turned white.

"Phew, I thought you were going to do something -" Axel flinched when Saïx spit him right in the eye, and slowly wiped the spit off with the back of his sleeve, "...worse."

Axel turned back and jumped out of the car, slamming the door shut after himself and locked the doors to the car properly. If that's the way Saïx wanted to play, then fine. He could roast in the car while Axel went to stock up on water and food. He hadn't eaten in a whole day and he had to be in his best mood if he was going to cope with having Saïx in the back of his car, spitting like a lama. Whatever happened to manners?

He had six water bottles, a Coke, and three bags of candy in his arms when he saw that there was a vending machine for hot food as well. He hurried over to it and looked at the menu with a frown. It all looked good but he couldn't take it all with him to the car. The hot dogs were making his mouth water until he saw the fish and chips. He tossed in the coins into the machine and waited for it to spit out his food.

Axel had barely opened the door when Saïx shot up from the backseat and frowned at the smell of the fish and chips. "Get that vile thing out of here." Axel put the bottles and candy next to him and flopped into his seat, taking a huge bite of his fish stick and chewed loudly.

"That's what you get for spitting me in the eye." Axel reached for the Coke, taking another bite of his fish stick.

"Open the window." Saïx lay down again, feeling nauseous at the smell of fish and dizzy because of the hit to his head. Axel kept eating away and didn't show any sign of wanting to open a window even though it was getting really warm. When Axel put the Coke bottle to his lips Saïx kicked the driver's seat again, causing Axel to almost empty the Coke over himself.

"Dammit, Saïx!"

"Open the window," he repeated. "It reeks."

Axel opened the window and finished his lunch. He was annoyed, sweaty and sticky. He looked at Saïx where he lay in the backseat; he was sure that Saïx must have felt overheated in his black suit. If he wanted to keep Saïx from having a heatstroke, he would have to keep him hydrated.

"Sit up, you have to drink water."

"Tell me where we're going first." Saïx looked up at Axel when the silence stretched too far.

"I can't."

"In that case I don't want any water."

Axel rolled his eyes and the plastic bottle crackled in his tightening grip and he smiled sternly.

"We're going to Fukuoka."

"You don't know anyone there."

"Exactly."

Axel opened the bottle of water and waited for Saïx to get up a bit, "Drink."

There was no denying that he was thirsty. He was almost through half the bottle when he moved away and lay down again. Axel started the engine and drove back onto the highway. He didn't like to lie to Saïx, it just kind of happened by its own accord.

Axel turned the radio on again - he didn't like where his thoughts went when he sat in silence. There were very few cars on the road today. The Chûgoku Expressway was known for its lack of visitors. The gas stations along the way had to close down because no one ever drove by. Axel had thought it to be an exaggeration when he had heard about it. He had never been to a place where there was a lack of people. It almost felt surreal to be alone on the road like this.

The radio frequency became weak and there was more white noise than music coming through the speakers. Saïx had been quiet all the way and Axel was starting to worry. He wasn't sure how hard he had hit him; maybe Saïx had a concussion. In that case they would have to go to the hospital and check in, risking having the boss know about their whereabouts. Axel turned around to take a quick look at his friend and was completely unprepared for the right hook that crushed down on his face.

All went black.

Axel wasn't sure how long he was out. Once he came to he was being dragged across very pointy gravel by his feet and he could hear the faint sound of the radio coming from the car wreck. He had a couple of seconds to think of how nice it was to be saved by his best friend and that Saïx really did care about him despite the downs they had been experiencing lately until he felt Saïx's roaming hands over him.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Where's your cell phone?"

Axel sat up and pushed Saïx's hands away and tried to frown but was reminded of the hit he had taken to the face.

"Fuck."

He touched where he thought his bruise began and winced at the pain. He turned around to see that the car was upside-down, the windows were cracked, if not broken, and the engine was steaming. Saïx was a bit dusty with sand. He still had the bruise from when Axel had knocked him out and he had bitten his lip. He looked better than what Axel felt at least.

"We're in the middle of nowhere, we're both injured and we don't have a car! The only one who can help us right now is our boss."

Axel got up onto his feet and brushed the dust off his clothes. They were by a small creek, a couple of a hundred feet below the highway. There was no point in trying to climb back up, there was hardly any traffic and it would be safer to keep off the road in case any by-passers noticed the car wreck and called the police.

"I'll give you the cell phone if you give me time to show you that what I'm doing is for the best."

"You don't have one with you, do you?"

"Maybe, maybe not, either way I'm the only chance you've got right now, so what do you say? Do we have a deal?"

It surprised Axel that he could look Saïx straight in the eye even when he lied, but he figured that the means would justify the ends and to be fair, he hadn't started all of this.

Saïx glared at him for a second, "Fine."

Saïx followed Axel down the creek and into the forest, and that made the black eye worthwhile. It didn't matter that they would probably have to sleep underneath the stars tonight amongst all the bugs and humid soil as long as Saïx followed him far away from the hellhole Axel had gotten them into years ago.

**~ooo~**

Arlene sat by a table for four and faced the large windows, looking out over the beautiful skyline. She was shaking her foot underneath the table, which caused her to remember how she had got that annoying habit. She was at the luxurious top-floor restaurant at the Crowne Hotel in Shinkobe, waiting for her company to show up. Arlene was sure that he had gotten stuck by a mirror on his way up.

There had been a time she had been stupid enough to think that she was done with this life, but it always found a way to catch up with her.

She played with the ring on her finger, noticing the reflection of herself in the window. Life had never been easy. She didn't expect it to be, but she would have liked to catch a break at some point.

"Arlene, how nice of you to show up on such short notice." A tall man in a dark suit sat down across from her with a polite smile. He had a younger man with him that sat to his right. It was obvious that he wasn't all too used to nice places like this one. The waiter showed up with menus for everyone. The ash-blond, short-haired follower took it and looked through it with a serious expression.

"You are on very thin ice if this is the best bodyguard the family has to offer, Liam." The fact that Arlene had used his real name made his follower look up with a surprised look. "Oh, I'm sorry. I mean Marluxia."

Despite her fear for this man, she couldn't help annoying him. She had been careless in coming back to Kobe. She didn't think Marluxia would still be after her. Now she knew how wrong she had been. He was as ruthless as ever and she had seen herself without any choice but to agree to his invitation for dinner. Ironically, he chose the Crowne Hotel for it.

"I'm not here to play games, Arlene." Marluxia leaned back into his chair. "You know what's at stake here. I've seen the pretty little house you've bought in the suburbs together with what's-his-name. I'm sure that he doesn't know the whole truth about your past, does he?"

"Just tell me what you want." Arlene didn't know if he was serious or not, but she didn't want to risk it. She had escaped this man before and she knew that she could do it again.

"Axel has left. Or he thinks he has." Marluxia seemed nonchalant about it and looked over at the waiter that approached them again. He knew that Arlene was intrigued.

"Have you decided for anything?"

"The usual. For all of us."

"I'm not eating," Arlene interjected.

The waiter looked from Arlene to Marluxia and waited for a final call, "For three," Marluxia said again in a more decisive tone and the waiter nodded, collected the menus, and turned to walk back into the kitchen.

Marluxia turned to her again and looked at her in silence. She sure had cleaned up her act. Her low-cut was high enough to leave something to the imagination and the red dress that revealed her nicely shaped, but far from curvaceous body, gave her a look of a femme fatal.

"Oh, you must be slightly intrigued," he said finally when the silence turned into a game of who blinked first.

"I don't believe you. He wouldn't leave the family."

"Correction, he wouldn't leave the family for you. It doesn't suit you to be so conceited, Arlene. I always said that he was unreliable, remember? Imagine how your life would have been if you hadn't run away from me. You're still in time to change your mind."

"Xemnas would have you killed if you did anything to me." Arlene did not feel the least flattered by Marluxia's proposal. It frightened her that he was still pursuing her. She found it hard to believe that he did it because he was romantically interested in her; there were other things he wanted to get to – things that would grant him power.

"Stop flattering yourself, Arlene. Xemnas stopped caring for you a long time ago. You were only important to Xemnas when Ansem was alive, and Saïx only protected you to control Axel. I'm your best option for security, Arlene. Axel left the family and he took Saïx with him."

"Are you done? I don't have time for your bullshit."

"But it's true. Axel left yesterday. That in itself is not interesting, although it has our boss upset. What's worth mentioning, however, is that our boss is outraged because of the abduction of Saïx and has us all working on getting him back."

Arlene snorted, "Poor thing. He did always get uneasy without his lapdog."

She decided to unfold her napkin over her lap to avoid the amused look on Marluxia's face at the obvious avoidance of the subject he was poking at.

"Axel is desperate. He knows that our boss will do everything to get Saïx back. They know far too much about our organization to be let go that easily. He will call you and when he does you will lure him to us." Marluxia smirked at the dangerous glare that Arlene shot at him. "If you don't, your better half will sadly have to suffer the consequences."

"You don't even know who he is."

"That's anyone's guess, isn't it? Regardless of what I know, see this as a favor I'm doing for you. Axel abandoned you when you needed him the most. He exposed you to great danger and has never shown any regret for it."

He could see Arlene tense. He knew that he was playing with a sore spot and he could almost see Arlene's guard come down and slowly make sense of what Marluxia was saying.

"And that's just the top of the iceberg, isn't it, Arlene? It's like he keeps finding new ways of harming you, even though you long decided that you didn't want to have anything to do with us. Think of what he did with -"

"Shut up, Liam." Her breathing became slightly harder and she looked away from both Marluxia and the bodyguard he had chosen to bring with him. "I'll do it. If he calls, I'll lure him out."

The waiter showed up with dinner and served all three of them. Another waiter showed up to pour the wine and Arlene found herself staring off into the distance. Her hands were tied and she could only accept the deal Marluxia had offered her. To gain the normal life she had fought so hard to get, she would have to betray an old friend that had helped her through rough times and brought her down when her strength had frightened him. She both hated and loved Axel, but at the end of the day she loved the idea of her normal life more. She just hoped that her resolution wouldn't dissolve at the sound of his voice.

**~ooo~**

They stumbled out of the thick forest and were met by the sun rising behind the mountains. They could see vast fields of grass beneath the hill they were on, and in the far off distance they could make out a small village.

Axel was feeling a bit nauseous; he could swear that he tasted the milk acid in his mouth and it wasn't uplifting to feel, unfit as he was in his current predicament. His shoes were brown with mud, he smelled like a decaying body and his left sleeve was hanging by a thread. His right eye had completely closed up, much thanks to Saïx's non-pacifist side and his entire body felt sore from all the walking and the tumbling around in a car down a steep ditch. He couldn't say that Saïx was much better off; he had dropped one shoe at one point, his pants were splattered with mud and his hair was covered in twigs and leaves.

"You wanna hop on?"

He leaned forward and spread his arms, ready in case Saïx wanted a piggyback ride.

Saïx walked past Axel with not so much as a glare in his direction. There was no way that Saïx was unmoved by this spectacular scenery, Axel thought and looked at Saïx as he walked ahead. After a few seconds Axel was ready to give up and conclude that Saïx couldn't care less about what they were both seeing for the first time in their lives, but then he saw it and he chuckled softly to himself.

Saïx had reached his arms out slightly, feeling the tall grass with the palm of his hands as it swayed underneath him, moved by the playful bursts of wind that blew past them.

They walked in silence all the way up until the end of the grass fields. The two were approaching the village, but it looked deserted. They stopped by the street that had to be crossed to enter the village and just stared for a while. What worried Axel the most was the tattoo that was sticking out of Saïx's collar. People outside their circles didn't respond well to gangsters and Saïx had a knack of always showing off that special side that wasn't in the least charming to anyone else but to the people they called family.

"How tired are you?" Axel asked and looked at Saïx with a meaning look.

"Very."

"Tired enough to pull your collar up?"

Saïx sighed and pulled up his collar as they both crossed the street and into the seemingly empty village. They didn't have a clue as to what time it was, all they knew was that they had to find a bed soon or they would collapse in the middle of the street.

"Look, villagers." Saïx nodded in the direction of the villagers ahead and Axel squinted to try to get a better look. For some reason, Axel had expected ridiculously old ladies, so he was surprised to see that it was one young woman helping an older and quite muscular man down the road. He had a big tattoo on his torso and Axel tried to ignore the mean look Saïx was shooting in his direction.

"Good morning," Axel said with a light bow of his head. "Me and my friend here were on our way through the highway and we had an accident. We were wondering if you have an inn or a hotel nearby?"

The black-haired man with a bare torso eyed them both and frowned. He bit hard onto the stray of wheat in his mouth. "You folk's city slickers?" They weren't given time to answer the obvious, the woman put a calming hand on his arm and smiled at Axel and Saïx.

"Don't worry about him," She said and bowed quickly. "We don't have any inns or hotels in our village, but you are free to stay at my place until you've sorted yourselves out."

"Yuna, no." The man shook his head decisively and jumped about with the one leg he was standing on since he had the other in a cast, "You are not taking home two strangers – no!"

"We can pay..." Axel wasn't sure why that had slipped out; he knew it had been a bad idea to say it the second the man stared right at him with a very annoyed glare.

"That's yer answer to everything, innit?"

Yuna didn't seem at all bothered by her companion's dominant ways. She shrugged it off and decided that Axel and Saïx could come with them. After a slightly awkward introduction they followed Yuna and Jecht to a very traditional Japanese house. They walked through a neat garden and stopped by the _genka_ to take their shoes off.

Yuna didn't have much stuff in her house, only things she had deemed strictly necessary. She helped Jecht down onto a cushion by the low table in the middle of the room and she slid the doors open to allow him a view of the garden outside. Axel caught Saïx looking around and he knew full well for what.

"Your room is upstairs. You can stay with Jecht while I heat up the bath."

She hurried out and left the three men in silence. Axel sighed and grabbed Saïx by his sleeve, pulling him along to the table where they sat down on the cushions across from Jecht. There was a dog barking in the distance and Axel found himself fidgeting his fingers as the silence stretched. This situation was far from normal for him. He was used to owning the place he walked into, to have people back away when he made his entrance. This dynamic was strange. They were here at Yuna's mercy as "ordinary" people. Saïx wasn't feeling good with this new situation either, Axel could sense the tension in his shoulders.

"What you lot doing here anyway?" Jecht asked, crossing his arms. "I know yer kind. Y'all come here and take our kids away to the city and leave us old folks here to rot."

"We're really just passing by."

"You on the run from the police? If you drag us into trouble..." He gestured towards the odd bruise Saïx had on his forehead and made a strange noise at the back of his throat when he looked at Axel's black eye.

"We're yakuza. He kidnapped me and now we have the head of the family thinking that we've betrayed him. We are running from a force much more frightening than the police."

Jecht suddenly roared with laughter, the reaction so sudden that it took both Axel and Saïx by surprise. He almost put his fist through the table when he hit it and he leaned in with a chuckle. "I like yer stile," he said to Saïx and then turned his voice into a whisper and gave a quick nod in Axel's direction, "His, not so much." He sat back up with a smug look on his face, "You lads know how to fix a roof? My leg's out and I need a couple'a hands to fix the neighbor's."

"We don't…" Axel began but was interrupted by Jecht hitting the table again.

"Y'all ain't ingrates, right? As soon as y'all had some shut-eye, you'll come down to my place and help me fix the roof." They heard Yuna walk in again and she smiled as soon as she saw all of them around the table.

"Good, you're getting along. Jecht can be quite a handful sometimes."

"I have to be, with you letting strangers into your house and what not."

"The bath is ready. Once you're done you can go upstairs and change into the clothes that I've laid out for you. Breakfast should be done by then."

Axel stood up and bowed again, "Thank you, and sorry for the trouble."

"It's no trouble, Axel. I'm happy to help." Yuna bowed her head too and she smiled at them again, "Go on then."

The bath house was detached from the main house, with a small path leading through the yard and stopping right by it. Axel slid the door aside and saw the bath that Yuna had prepared for them. There were two barrels of wood standing across from each other; it was like something taken right out of a history book.

A few moments later, both Saïx and Axel sat in their barrels, letting the warm water relax them from their long walk through the forest. Axel couldn't stop thinking about the tattoo on Saïx that would be so apparent in traditional clothing, and even though Jecht had his tattoo out in the open, it seemed different enough to not be comparable to the tattoo that Saïx had.

"We gotta do something about that tattoo," he said at last.

"What for? Jecht has one; besides, if it bothers you so much stop looking at it."

"His tattoo seems more religious. Yours just – I don't know, it doesn't fit in these surroundings and I don't want you to freak Yuna out. She's been really kind to let us into her house. Let your hair out or something."

"I'm not gonna let my hair out just because you say so, Axel. You're in no position to give me orders."

The dragon that went from his back, over his shoulder and down onto his chest looked every bit as arrogant as Saïx. Axel took a deep breath and tried to think of anything that could make him cooperate.

"You have tattoos too."

"Yeah, but mine are strategically placed, unlike yours."

Axel's tattoos were on his left arm and shoulder. He only had one tattoo on his chest and it had been the first tattoo that he had gotten made; a guardian lion right above his heart. It was for protection, and all things considered, he thought it had worked pretty well.

There was suddenly a soft knock on the door, "Axel, Saïx, breakfast is done. I'm sorry to have to stress you, but Jecht is starting to get really cranky."

"We'll be right out."

The clothes that Yuna had laid out for them on the second floor were traditional yukatas, worn during the warm and humid Japanese summer. Axel hadn't worn one in quite some time and he liked the way it looked on him. Much to his relief, Saïx was letting his hair out to hide the dragon body on his neck, and once they were both done they walked downstairs where Jecht was mumbling in his impatience.

"Finally," he said when Saïx and Axel sat down by the table.

"Now that we're all here, you may begin with breakfast, Jecht."

Yuna had made a lot of small dishes for breakfast. There were small bowls with tofu and nori for the miso soup, two kinds of small fish, rice, and pickles. Axel dug in and didn't notice Yuna's worried look until she put down her chopsticks and tilted her head to her side slightly.

"Saïx, are you okay? You're not eating any fish."

"I'm fine. I'm not very fond of fish."

Jecht shook his head in disbelief and reached for Saïx's portion of fish. "Ya'll city slickers are too spoiled. Back in my day we ate what was served and left no trace of food on our plates."

"Don't mind him, Saïx. He eats anything I put on the table. Do you want anything else instead of fish? More pickles?"

"He eats like he's on a diet, Yuna," Axel said with his left cheek round from all the rice in his mouth. "But leave a pastry out and it'll be gone in five seconds flat. The culprit?" He pointed at Saïx and started to chew again.

Yuna giggled and continued eating. Axel realized that this was the first time in forever that he had a normal conversation with a normal woman. He wasn't sure how he felt about it; she treated them as if they were any other persons. Her kindness made him think of times in his life when he had been less than kind to women.

After breakfast they went upstairs where Yuna had put out two futons for them. As Axel heard Saïx accommodate in his futon, he stared up at the ceiling and took in all the different smells that he couldn't get in the city. All the new scents were kind of overwhelming. The wood the house was made of had a special scent, the futon he was in had another kind of scent that was similar to that of his clothes. It smelled like soap, but it wasn't like the soap back home, it was a scent that was more felt than smelled. It didn't make much sense but Axel couldn't keep himself from noticing it. He blinked slowly and looked over at Saïx.

"Not bad, huh?"

"Not bad at all," Saïx agreed with a small smile playing on his lips.

It didn't take long for Axel to fall asleep. The walk here had taken its toll and the bath had relaxed him so much that he thought he would go through the floor. What he failed to notice while in his deep sleep though, was that Saïx slipped out as soon as Axel's breathing evened out.


	2. Thicker Than Blood

****Title:** **Last Train**  
><strong>Author:<strong> **nikki_ntm**  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **Shattered Apocalypse**  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> **2/20**  
><strong>Genre<strong>: **Drama/Adventure/Suspense**  
><strong>Rating:<strong> **M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**  
><strong>Characters:<strong> **Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> **Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N: **Comments and reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy!

x

**Chapter 2: Thicker Than Blood**

"Fuck."

Axel sat on top of Jecht's roof in a pair of pants and a sleeveless shirt. He was sweating, and it didn't matter how many times he wiped his forehead, it would only take seconds before he had to do so again. They had just finished with their second roof and Axel was hoping that it was their last. He wasn't cut out for this kind of physical labor.

"I don't think I've ever been sweating like this in my life." Saïx touched his arm and was amazed by how wet he was; he was vaporizing in this heat.

"Remember that year your mom got an air conditioner?"

Saïx nodded and sat up right, "You didn't want to leave. Wasn't that time when she got annoyed with you and told you to bring money if you were going to stay with us?"

"And I did."

Axel remembered it like it had been yesterday. Saïx's mother didn't really like that Axel hung around Saïx as much as he did, and it had gotten on her nerves to come home every day and see that Axel was still there. After their argument, Axel had gone out and spent two entire days finding empty bottles to get money for them. He had collected a whole 5000 yen. He had never had that much money before in his life, and he had enjoyed the look of surprise on the face of Saïx's mother when he gave her the money. It had been one of the few times she had been happy with what Axel did, to not say the only time.

"A popsicle would be nice now."

"Oh, the blue one that old man Wakaji sold in the street corner."

"I preferred the strawberry-flavored one. The blue one was salty."

"You think that Yuna has any ice at her place?"

They had been here for two days now. They had slept away the first day, and Jecht had made sure that they had kept the promise he had forced them into once they woke up. He was alright, despite his "quirks" as Yuna had called them. Jecht reminded Axel of his father, his real father, and like with so many other things in this village, it caused him to have an ambivalent feeling.

"No! I'm not going to your stupid set-ups!"

Axel peered down and saw a blond teenager hurry out of the house. Tidus was Jecht's eldest son. He was short-tempered, much like his old man. Axel didn't know much more than that; they had only met this morning. The tension in the house could have been cut up with a knife and served cold. Jecht wanted Tidus to settle down, marry a nice girl, and give him grandkids before he got any older.

Tidus couldn't be older than eighteen; he looked really young and had his whole life ahead. It seemed like a waste for him to settle down now. Axel was twenty-eight and didn't have the slightest inclination to settle down. First and foremost he wanted to come close to a normal life. A day without beating someone up was the first goal and today seemed like the day to take that first step.

"Come back here, you little brat! I ain't done talkin' to ya! Tidus!" Jecht came limping out on the yard and stopped midway when Tidus disappeared behind a hill. Jecht had injured himself while trying to fix the roof the day before Saïx and Axel got here; it seemed to suit Tidus perfectly because now he could outrun his father.

"Bloody ingrate," he mumbled and began to jump back into the house on his one good leg, before he stumbled and fell onto the ground, cursing.

Axel and Saïx hurried down the roof and onto the yard to help Jecht back up onto his feet. Jecht snorted the second he saw them and tried to wave them off, "Y'all better get back up and fix the roof. I can deal with this on my own."

Saïx slowed down but Axel hurried up to him anyway and got a hold around his waist.

"A little help here."

Saïx walked up to them and helped Jecht up onto his foot and stayed beside him while Axel threw his arm around his neck.

"Well, look at you," Jecht said with a laugh, "That some nice body-art y'all have there. Never thought that a pair of sissies like yourselves had it in ya." He looked at Saïx's neck and caught a glimpse of the tattoo on Axel's chest and the tattoos down his left arm, "No offense." He added as an afterthought and seemed intrigued by the dragon Saïx had going from his back, over his shoulder and a bit over his neck and down to his chest. "Guess you weren't kiddin' after all."

They helped Jecht back into the house and sat him down on a rundown sofa at the end of the room. Jecht's house wasn't at all as neat as Yuna's house. He had stuff lying around everywhere and he seemed to collect on everything that could be labeled as trash.

"The roof's done," Axel said and Jecht gave a slow nod, "You having family trouble?"

Saïx shot him a disapproving look.

"What's it to you?"

"Well, I can run after your kid for one."

Saïx couldn't believe the choice of words Axel had gone with, there was no point in upsetting Jecht now.

"_You_ gonna talk sense to my boy?" Jecht chuckled, "I'd like to see you try. That kid has a skull thicker than mine; he ain't gonna see what's right for 'im until it's too late. Family tradition." He paused and sighed, "Fine. Talk to 'im and if you can make him show up for lunch at the tavern, I'll be grateful an' all that." Jecht crossed his arms and looked away, waiting for Axel and Saïx to leave, which they did.

They set off in the direction they had seen Tidus go. Axel was hoping that there wouldn't be many villagers out to see them walk by. Jecht hadn't seemed bothered by their tattoos and what they meant, but Axel didn't count on all the other villagers being as understanding. Fortunately for them, they all seemed to be in the tavern that Jecht had been talking about, preparing for lunch. This was a really small village and most of its villagers were old. Jecht was amongst the youngest and that was saying something.

"What's wrong with you?" Saïx asked as soon as they were out on the yard again.

"What do you mean?"

"This! Since when are you a family counselor? Since when do you even care?"

"What? He's an alright guy, he didn't threaten to call the police or kick us to the curb when he saw our tattoos, he's got a problem and I think I can help. There's nothing wrong with that."

Saïx grabbed him by his arm and made him turn around, "Let me rephrase the question. Why the hell are we here? You can't expect me to believe that you kidnapped me to save us both from _evil_ because you suddenly got a conscience. Did you steal money?"

"No." Axel pulled away from Saïx's grip, "Do we have to talk about this now? I'll tell you why once we've settled the thing with Jecht's kid."

"Tell me now." Saïx demanded. It was going to take a while for him to drop the hierarchic thinking, it seemed. Axel shuffled the dirt with his left foot and tried to come up with an explanation that was satisfying and believable enough for Saïx. He couldn't tell him the truth yet. Not with how things were now. He was halfway through a half-baked lie in his head when they heard Yuna call for them. She walked up to them, smiling.

"Did you finish Jecht's roof yet?"

"Yeah. It's done. We were going after Tidus 'cause he got into a fight with Jecht and we thought we could help out a bit."

Yuna's smile faltered and she suddenly seemed nervous. "Oh. I should go and have a talk with Jecht then. I didn't mean to cause him any trouble." She bowed her head slightly, "I'm glad that the both of you are feeling better. Your eye is healing up nicely, Axel."

Before Axel had any time to question her about what she had said, Yuna walked off to pay Jecht a visit.

"What was that about?"

Saïx sighed. For someone who assumed the role of a family counselor, Axel sure had problems reading the obvious. "She's probably the one Jecht wants Tidus to marry. She tried to be nice or something and told Jecht to invite Tidus to lunch today and since it backfired, she thinks it's her fault."

"That kid really is an ingrate if he's complainin' about getting together with her."

They finally found Tidus sitting on the grass by a small creek that ran through the village. He was throwing stones into it and looked generally gloomy. It was strange to see a person with blond hair out in a rural village, it was normal to see rebellious teenagers bleach their hair in the city but Axel had never once seen a postcard of a Japanese village with rebellious kids.

Tidus was wearing a white T-shirt with an American flag on it and marine-blue sweatpants. It was nothing like how Yuna dressed. She always wore a yukata, and even walked around in _gekka_ – traditional, wooden shoes.

Axel couldn't quite understand what the appeal was in standing out when you didn't have to. Being born different in a country where difference wasn't encouraged much had brought him nothing but trouble his first years. He had tried to fit in by coloring his hair black, but once he found his spot amongst the family, there was no need to do that anymore.  
>Saïx had colored it blue once upon a time, but as he climbed up the ranks he had colored it back to his natural black. He hadn't gotten rid of his bangs though, and his hair was still long, so he put it in a ponytail to keep it from getting in the way.<p>

Tidus pretended not to notice them when they sat down beside him. He continued on, throwing rocks until Axel broke the silence.

"So your old man is trying to set you up?" Tidus glared at him from the corner of his eye and tensed up at being reminded of it.

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

"Yeah? What do you think about marriage?"

Tidus shrugged and put his arms around his legs, "It's alright, I guess." He looked at both Saïx and Axel, "Do you have wives?"

"Us? No. We – we're very job oriented. We're always on the road, there hasn't been any time to stop and smell the roses. Uh, if you think marriage is alright, why are you making such a fuss about it?" Axel hadn't thought it would be this easy to make Tidus talk. He had been nervous about it, but this was okay.

"Dad wants me to marry Yuna. Or to 'court her'."

"And that's a bad thing?" This kid might have a screw loose if that was his problem. "There's nothing wrong with her, right? You both grew up here, so you must know her."

"We used to be friends. That is, until dad started to bug me about marriage." Tidus sighed and waved off a mosquito, "She would only be marrying me because I'm the only one left. She doesn't have a choice. Even if we got married, we would have to leave for the city and I don't have any skills. How will I provide for us if I can't get a job? It's not fair."

That was unexpected. Tidus seemed to have spent a lot of time thinking about this; he wasn't being ungrateful, he was actually being mature. That would be difficult to break to Jecht, who seemed to like thinking that Tidus was being a rebellious teenager that only wanted to spite his father.

"I had a younger brother. He left a couple of years ago to find something better in the city. He didn't want to stay here, isolated from the rest of the world. I thought that he was stupid for leaving us, and I was mad at him for a while. That was probably why he stopped sending letters, but I know better now. I should have left when I had the chance, too. I could have made some money and then came back to assure Yuna a safe life." Tidus looked at the creek with a pondering look, "Dad doesn't know that he left. He thinks that he was kidnapped. The cops came by. It was a really big thing; reporters came here and asked us a lot of questions. I was angry at my brother, but I had promised him that I wouldn't tell anyone. Dad's been unbearable ever since."

"Tidus..." Axel began slowly, "You should tell Jecht. I mean, that's – that's a pretty big secret to keep. And -" Axel couldn't quite wrap his head around what Tidus just had told them. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose a child, just thinking about things like that would only get in the way of his work, which was pretty much extortion and threats.

"...and you shouldn't meddle." Saïx was clearly through with this session of confessions, but Axel was far from it.

"Tidus, you have the chance to be honest with your father. Your brother is still out there and he might want to come home. Imagine the shock when he comes wandering in like nothing happened. And you don't have to think so far ahead. Yuna likes you, it's clear as day. She was the one who told Jecht to tell you to show up for lunch. She doesn't seem like the kind of girl who would settle with anyone. There's really - "

"I can't believe I'm hearing this." Saïx sighed in complete awe, "Are you listening to yourself? This is exactly what I mean. Where the hell is all of this coming from? Be honest with your father? Honesty is not even a word you comprehend and just the fact that you're using it in this context is freaking me out. You better tell me what's going on or I'll punch your other eye in."

Tidus looked from one side to another, figuring that he should stay quiet. He sat in between Saïx and Axel, the tension almost on par to that of his house. He hadn't really paid attention to their tattoos until now, but he knew enough to understand what they meant.

"I can't tell you now! I'll tell you in due time, but now is not that time. We're trying to solve another problem here and I don't think discussing your trust issues is going to help much, so calm the hell down!"

"Guys!" Tidus interrupted and snapped his fingers in front of them to get their attention. "Lunch sounds great. I think we should go to the tavern and see what they've prepared. You're staying at Yuna's right? Her food is delicious. I've been thinking of what you said, Axel, and I've come to the conclusion that I should at least talk to Yuna. She's my friend and I've been really weird lately. I'll see what I'll do with dad – guys! Seriously, focus. You don't need to fight. You'll get my stomach upset."

Tidus got up, and much to his relief, so did Axel and Saïx. He filled every moment of silence with senseless chatter about everything he could come up with; a walk to the tavern had never felt so long and stressful. Axel felt sorry for Tidus once he had calmed down a bit, but it kept Tidus busy from thinking about the reaction from Jecht and Yuna once he showed up at the tavern.

The tavern was one big dining room with a long, low table and a lot of cushions. The kitchen was in the back and the bathrooms were outside the tavern. Axel was glad to see an old air conditioner in the corner. Most of the villagers were already there, ready to have their lunch. The chatter died out when they noticed Axel and Saïx walk in, a lot of their tattoos out for everyone to see. Yuna hurried up to the two and greeted them before she turned around.

"Everyone, this is Axel and Saïx. They were in a car accident and ended up here. Let's make them feel at home with us." She bowed her head, Axel and Saïx doing the same. The villagers seemed to relax once Yuna had given them her stamp of approval, and she smiled at them again before asking them to sit by her.

Tidus sat down in front of them, looking rather sheepish when he made eye-contact with Yuna. "I'm glad you decided to show up, Tidus," she said, making Tidus blush.

He scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah, me too."

Jecht decided to remain quiet about it. He didn't want to ruin the mood; his son was difficult to deal with, and truth be told, he was really grateful that the two newcomers had decided to help him out with this one.

"Axel, I brought a special paste for your eye." Yuna took out a small container from her sleeve and gave it to Axel. At first glance it looked like the sample of a soap bar, as it was green and shaped like a square. "All you have to do is take a little piece of it and blend it out with water until it thickens a little. Then you apply it to your eye or any other bruise. Do it twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It'll help if you eat food with zinc. Eat whatever Saïx eats; he seems to get enough zinc. His bruise is almost gone."

"I eat well." Axel protested as he helped himself to more meat from the small pot on the table.

"You eat that vile concoction from the vending machines," Saïx corrected, "Not even dogs eat like that."

"You would know."

"Yuna, d-did you make this?" Tidus held up his bowl of soup and raised his voice high enough to talk over Axel and Saïx. "It's really good. This is the fish dad caught yesterday, right? The fish from the creek is really good. You should try it if you haven't, guys." Tidus took Axel's bowl and took some fish from another pot and put it onto his plate. He was going to reach for Saïx's bowl when Saïx took his plate away from Tidus quickly.

Tidus seemed rather surprised and was going to say something when Yuna reached out her plate and smiled, "I'll have some."

The subject shifted to gardening and plantation. Jecht quickly took the lead in the conversation and told the youths about the best ways to care for a garden. Axel didn't know that the earth had to rest, or that you had to plant certain things in a certain order to not take all the vitamins and minerals from the earth.

They were halfway through lunch when the sound of screeching wheels came from the outside. The only car that passed by this village was usually the truck that came with mail and goods, but from what Axel had heard it was an old car and an old man that drove it. That screech sounded much like something else, and his heart began to beat faster when he heard a door slam shut. He hadn't even noticed that Saïx got up, not until the sliding doors were pulled aside. Axel got onto his feet and then everything else happened in slow-motion.

"Well, well, well." Xigbar stood by the doorway with his favorite gun in his hand. He looked at them with his one good eye and smiled wickedly. "Small world, ain't it?"

"Who the hell are you?" Jecht got up from his cushion fast enough to seem threatening. Axel didn't get the time to get him out of the way before Xigbar fired away and shot at Jecht's leg.

"Dad!"

"Stay put, or I'll put a bullet in your head. Simple rules." Xigbar waved around his gun and seemed bored with the look of horror on the villagers' faces. "Saïx, get in the car."

Axel looked at Saïx intently, like he was trying to draw out an answer by glaring, but Saïx didn't turn to face him. He walked past Xigbar and out of the tavern. He had been expecting this. Saïx knew that Xigbar was coming; he knew that he would be going back to Kobe. Axel clenched his fists tightly and caught a quick glimpse of Tidus holding his hands against the shot wound on his father's leg. These people had nothing to do with this, yet they had been caught in the middle.

"Let's take this outside," Axel said, "They don't have to see this."

Xigbar laughed, "Good grief. Whatever, let's get this over with. I have a delivery to make." He waved his gun and let Axel get ahead of him. Xigbar was anything but in a good mood. He had been driving for hours in this heat to retrieve the traitors. He had to put a bullet through someone to make this day worthwhile.

Axel had gotten to the doorway when he suddenly turned around and knocked the gun out of Xigbar's hand, planting his fist into his face immediately. He grabbed a hold of Xigbar's head with two hands and pushed it down onto his knee hard enough to hear Xigbar's nose crack. He was faintly aware of the gasps and shrieks from the villagers', but he was much more taken in by the rage he felt at being betrayed by the best friend he was trying to save. He pushed his elbows down onto Xigbar's back and then he pulled him up by his neck to hold him up long enough to punch him in the face again. Xigbar dropped to the floor, unconscious. Axel took the gun on the floor and put it in the back his pants.

Yuna had hurried over to Jecht's side to see his wound. Jecht was lying down and grinned when he saw Axel approach him.

"You never cease to amaze, do ya?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be okay once my eldest son stops crying like the wuss he is."

"Shut up! I'm not crying!" Tidus wiped away the tears that were threatening to run down his face. "That man could've killed you!"

Yuna sat up and sighed, "The bullet is in there. I have to take it out. It seems like it missed the vital points, which is good, but it's going to take a while to recuperate."

"For fuck's sake."

Axel took another look around the room; everyone seemed to slowly let go of the shock. Everything had gone really fast so maybe it would take some time for them to understand what had happened. Axel hurried over to Xigbar, searching through his pockets until he found a wallet. He took all the bills and hurried back to Tidus.

"I have to go. Take this. It should cover whatever it is you need to help Jecht back to health." Axel gave the money to him. Tidus was still trembling, but he was trying to snap out of it to not be bullied by his father.

"Money. S'all you city slickers think of," Jecht said from where he lay. Axel tried to smile, but he was feeling guilty, sick and a whole cocktail of other less-than-pleasant feelings that he didn't want to deal with right now.

He picked Xigbar off the floor and carried him outside. Saïx was sitting in Xigbar's black Mercedes, waiting for him to come out and drive him back to Kobe. Axel walked up to the trunk of the car and opened it with the keys he had taken from Xigbar's pockets. Axel threw him in there and tied him up much like he had done with Saïx a couple of days before. He closed the trunk with a loud slam and walked around the car to get into the driver's seat.

"You're bringing him with -" Saïx stopped in mid-sentence when he felt the barrel of the gun against his temple. He caught a glimpse of Axel in the corner of his eye, and he felt his breath get caught in his throat when he saw the fury in his supposedly best friend's eyes.

"You have thirty seconds to explain what the hell you were thinking." Axel unsecured the gun to let Saïx know that he was ready to shoot his brains out if he had to. "Go."

"I had to; you weren't telling me what you were thinking -"

"Bullshit. Try again." Axel's hand was trembling and he hated to see how weak he was. He still measured his strength by how capable he was to kill, he realized. He was trying to become a normal person, but normal people didn't have their best friends at gun point, did they?

"My loyalty lies with Xemnas," Saïx said, "You can't seriously expect me to give up my life just because you've decided to become Mother Theresa. The family is my life. It's the only life I know, it's the only life we could choose -"

"Shut up." Axel pressed the gun harder against Saïx's temple, "That's a lie. This wasn't our only way out."

"We are descendants of _filth_. The only way for us to make it anywhere is to be with the family -"

"Shut up! Yeah, we had a rough childhood, we were in the shit. I'll give you that much, but we did have a choice. Stop repeating everything like some goddamn robot! You're saying the same things I was telling you back then. I _thought_ that it was our only way out. I was wrong. Okay? I was wrong! We didn't have to become this. This was my choice. For the both of us. Now I'm getting you out." Axel was breathing hard, and his hand just wouldn't stop trembling.

"Put your seat-belt on."

He put the gun away on his side of the door and buckled up as well, reaching for the keys and got the car going. They still had a long way to go, and with the high-ranked Xigbar in the trunk, Axel was sure that Xemnas wouldn't let him get away with it.


	3. What Goes Around

****Title:** **Last Train**  
><strong>Author:<strong> **nikki_ntm**  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **Shattered Apocalypse**  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> **3/20**  
><strong>Genre<strong>: **Drama/Adventure/Suspense**  
><strong>Rating:<strong> **M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**  
><strong>Characters:<strong> **Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> **Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N: **Comments and reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy!

x

**Chapter 3: What Goes Around**

**~ooo~**

**Three months earlier**

**~ooo~**

It was dark out; the streets were packed with people, the neon signs could be seen in the far off distance, but Axel was walking in their opposite direction. There were some foreigners looking at him, but he wasn't bothered by it. He had a mission to deal with, and to accomplish it he had to walk through half of China Town. He walked past a lot of small shops and restaurants. The smell of food filled the air, reminding Axel to stop by a shop and buy himself some dinner. He wasn't sure he was welcome to join his brothers to dinner, not until he had done his job at least. It had taken him a lot of time to locate his source and he knew that Saïx had begun to doubt him.

He recognized the restaurant he was looking for; it was across the road and looked almost like any other restaurant on the street. The owner had named it "Kuon Huang Kou" if he was reading the kanji correctly. The Kingdom of Light. No wonder there was so much bad stuff in the world if the Kingdom of Light was a small restaurant in Kobe's China Town.

Axel looked through the window; there weren't many customers in. He tried to see if he could spot Larxene, or Arlene as she liked to call herself now. It felt strange to know that he was close to seeing her again after nearly four years. Last time he had talked to her, she had made it perfectly clear what she thought of him. Axel knew that Saïx had given him this mission to test his loyalty, and knowing that he had burnt the bridges with Larxene, he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize it.

He opened the door and a bell above it gave off a small noise to let everyone know that someone was coming in. Axel hadn't expected that the owner would come out, staring him down as he walked up to him.

"You're not welcome here."

The man was middle-aged, his black hair had streaks of gray and he was well-built for his age. His name was Eraqus, a refugee from China with a temporary visa that had expired fifteen years ago. Axel smirked and lifted the right side of his vest to reveal the gun he was carrying.

"Get outta the way, old man. This isn't for you."

"She doesn't want to see you. You should respect her wishes or -" Eraqus wasn't given the time to even formulate the threat in his head before Axel pulled out his gun and pointed it at him.

"I'm not gonna say it again."

"Eraqus, it's fine. I'll talk to him." Arlene showed up in the open kitchen, behind the counter in the corner of the small restaurant. Axel couldn't see her from where he stood, but he put the gun away and walked past Eraqus, pushing the old man away with his shoulder as he did.

He sat down on a high stool by the counter and waited for Arlene to turn around and face him. He hadn't seen her since that fateful night and he couldn't really blame her for not wanting to see him. She had disappeared from the map the second she left; she changed her name, manners and made sure to never once revisit the places she usually had gone to as Larxene. Axel had spent an unusual amount of time looking for her and that made Saïx suspicious. How long could it take to find a person who supposedly was in the same city?

"I've been looking for you," Axel said. Arlene moved around some soup bowls to seem busy, but then stopped, sighing before she turned around and looked Axel in the eye.

"What do you want?"

Axel tried to stifle a snicker, "What the hell happened to you?"

Arlene wasn't wearing any make-up; she had her hair tied in a tight bun with a hair-net over it, and there wasn't nearly as much of her on show as Axel was used to seeing. She just looked wrong. The normal lifestyle she had been talking so much about was apparently not agreeing with her as far as Axel was concerned.

She glared at him. In the background she saw Eraqus sit down by a table across from the counter to keep an eye on their conversation, and she tried to ignore the sting in her chest at realizing that he was looking out for her.

"I need the gate code to your pop's."

Arlene froze, looking away. She began pushing back the cuticles on her nails absentmindedly. There was nothing she hated more than the effect the mentioning of her father had on her. Axel knew most of the story and yet he never had any qualms when he brought him into the conversation.

"I don't have it," she snarled, "I haven't talked to that old man in years."

Axel rubbed his eyes in feigned exhaustion, "Let's not do this. I'm tired, you're tired, and we both know that I'll get it one way or another. I was just hoping that I could come in here and ask you nicely for it before I set this cute little shop on fire."

Arlene looked at Eraqus quickly and gulped. She looked back at Axel and tried to reach out to whatever humanity he had left in him, but he just grinned at her. Her hands were trembling when she reached for a small notepad on the counter that was used for take-away orders.

"See it as a favor between friends," Axel said while she wrote down the numbers that he needed to get to his mission. Arlene pulled out the paper from the notepad, folded it once and gave it Axel with an empty expression.

"You don't know what friendship is, Axel. You and your family will pay for this."

Axel stood up and stretched his arms nonchalantly, "Famous last words. I'll catch ya later, _Arlene_."

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

The young woman by the cashier was shaking and crying, glancing at her coworker on the floor who kept telling her that everything was going to be alright. She tried to nod as she collected all the bills that were in the cashier. She put them on the counter and looked at the masked perpetrator with fear in her dark eyes.

"Get over there."

The man waved around with the gun and pointed towards the refrigerators. The young woman hurried over there, her breathing came out in short sobs and she whimpered when the masked man walked closer up to her. He had duct tape in his hand and when he came closer she realized what he was going to do.

"Turn around."

She shook her head, holding her hands up in defense as she pleaded with him.

"Leave her alone! Don't touch her, you scum! You have all the money!" The wounded man on the floor tried to crawl up to them, but his pain slowed him down.

The man put the gun to the girl's head and sighed. "Turn around or I'll shoot."

"Y-Yumiko, turn around. It's alright, Yumiko."

She did as she was told and she let the man tie her hands together with the duct tape. He didn't tie up her feet, but he gave her a small sharp object to hold and the girl tried to identify it.

"It'll take at least ten minutes for you to get out of the duct tape. Hold on tight to this, ten minutes is all he gets before he starts to bleed out real bad. Understood?"

The man had barely finished the sentence when the girl started to work through the duct tape binding her hands together. The man walked by the counter and took the only telephone in the store and put it where the man on the ground couldn't reach it without risking bleeding out sooner. He took the money and the shirts on the counter and walked out to the parking lot.

He pulled off his mask and flopped down into the driver's seat. He threw the shirts on Saïx's lap and got the engine going. His quest for a normal life was going down the drain, but he had forced himself to do the robbery. They had left half of their clothes back in that village and the shirts they were wearing now had their tattoos all out in the open.

Saïx looked through the clothes that were clearly made for tourists. Half of the shirts had the printing of the Himeji-castle, and then there were others with "I heart Hyôgo" or "I heart Japan". In short, they would look like idiots wearing this.

"They didn't give you a complementary cap to go with these?"

A bump came from the trunk, followed by a lot of muffled complaints. Xigbar was conscious and probably really pissed. Axel was glad that he had decided to put him in the trunk. He wasn't in the mood for a surprise attack from the backseat again.

They passed by a road sign, and according to it, they were getting close to Shiso. Axel wasn't sure of how healthy it could be to lay in the trunk of a car, but he figured that unless he wanted to commit a murder on top of a robbery tonight, he shouldn't let Xigbar lay in there for too long.

"You were having nightmares," Saïx said.

Axel gripped the wheel tighter and clenched his jaw. He kept his gaze on the road, attempting to push away the thoughts that emerged in his mind by trying to think of the vast fields of grass surrounding the highway. Who wouldn't have nightmares after seeing the things he had seen? After hearing the things he had heard?

He knew he should tell Saïx. If there was anything that would make him reconsider and change his attitude towards Axel's plan it would be the truth. Or that's what he would like to happen. It was difficult for him to read Saïx nowadays and it frightened him to think that Saïx no longer cared for him.

Another bump from the trunk reminded him that he shouldn't be talking about it now. Xigbar was dangerous and difficult to control and he had far too many problems right now to give Xigbar free ammunition.

"I'm sure you have 'em too." Axel accelerated. He had to get rid of Xigbar quick and he needed help. Xemnas was probably aware of Xigbar failing with the mission by now. He had probably a load of gangsters combing through the entire Hyôgo-area now that he knew where Axel and Saïx had been.

"Who's Naminé?"

Axel didn't answer. He just wanted to get to Shiso quickly so that he could get rid of Xigbar and continue with their journey. He would tell Saïx eventually, when the time was right.

**~ooo~**

**Three months earlier**

**~ooo~**

The mansion was three stories high, with large windows and entirely in white. It looked like one of those mansions from American movies where everything was big and luxurious. The house was named New Orleans, so there was no doubt from where Dr. Ansem Kenzui had gotten the inspiration for the house.

Axel walked through one dark room after another in search for the study. There was an abundance of things in this place; there were pictures, expensive couches, paintings, designer furniture. What was the point of having so much stuff if you were never here to see it?

Axel reached for his gun and put away the note Arlene had given him. Aside from the gate code she had written a message for him. "Don't kill him" it said. It was cute how she thought that he would take orders from her, especially since Saïx's orders were completely different. "Get the data whatever the cost."

Seeing how the house was empty Axel would be able to comply with both orders. It would be difficult to get Arlene to do him favors if he killed her biological father.

He walked down another dark hallway and tried the doors to peak into each room. He found the room he was looking for at the end of that hallway; Ansem's study. He walked in and had a look around. It was quite big. There were shelves filled with books alongside the walls, a large wooden desk in the middle of the room stacked with papers, pencils and files. Axel went straight for the biggest painting in the room. He put it down and revealed the safe behind it. It wasn't a classic safe where he could just twist the handle until he got the password right. Fortunately for Axel, it was still quite an old model so he could just play around with the wiring until it opened. He removed the screen and the small keyboard underneath it to reveal the wiring he needed to move around.

The machine gave off a small beep and lit up green, but instead of opening the heavy door to the safe it grew out another machine that lit up with a blue light. Axel cursed under his breath when he saw what it was; it was a safe with fingerprint-identification. He was going to reach for his cell phone to call his superior when the door flew open.

"What are you doing here?"

Axel didn't stop to identify the person that had barged in. He aimed immediately for the head and shot at the man twice and watched him fall to the floor with a loud thud. Axel walked up to him, closing the door and locking it quietly before kneeling down by the body. There was a pool of blood forming around the blond man's head. His blue eyes were empty of emotion, but his face was stuck in a look of horror. Axel had killed Dr. Ansem Kenzui.

"Damn."

Axel looked around as he put his gun back in the holster he wore underneath his vest. He could still accomplish his mission; he realized when he looked at the safe that was still asking for a fingerprint. Axel pulled out a small knife that he had attached to his ankle and took Dr. Ansem's right hand.

"You won't need this anymore, doctor."

He cut off Ansem's index finger by the base and once he had it, he stood up and walked over to the safe. He put the finger over the small touch-screen with a fingerprint on it and waited for the machine to scan it. The door to the safe opened up and Axel dropped the finger to begin searching through the safe. He pulled out a black bag from his pocket and filled it with the money that was in there to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.

On the top shelf there was a metal box; Axel took it and opened it to see that it contained seven USB-sticks, each labeled as "research". He put that one in the bag, glanced at the safe once more and decided that there was nothing else of importance. At least Saïx would be pleased with the mission.

Axel was feeling paranoid; he hadn't even heard the doctor walk up to the room. Maybe the place was crawling with lifeguards and police officers.

"Axel."

Axel reached for his gun within a blink of an eye and turned around, ready to shoot. He nearly dropped the gun when he saw a young girl standing at the other side of the room, by the desk, looking at him intently with blue eyes. She had a very small built, she couldn't be older than fifteen, her hair was blond and she was in a white nightgown. When the hell did she get in here?

"Axel."

He was going to have to shoot her. There was no other way out. She had seen his face, she had seen him empty the safe and she had probably seen him kill her father. He aimed the gun at her and gulped. This wasn't right. This girl had done nothing wrong. When the gun went off it felt like he was outside his body, looking down on someone else committing a horrible crime. He hadn't realized that he had closed his eyes until he turned around to see if the young girl had fallen to the floor. She was still standing, but there was a look of shock on her face. There weren't any bullet wounds on her forehead and for a moment Axel was scared that he had shot her somewhere else, but that shock on her face was slowly turned into a gentle smile.

"Axel of the Ingô-family. Age: 28. Blood type: B-B-B..."

Her voice was distorted and she flickered as she disappeared, leaving Axel alone in the room again. He looked around, feeling like his heart was about to beat itself out of his chest. He had to get out of here. He hurried for the door when the girl suddenly reappeared right in front of him with that serene look on her face.

"Burakumin. Real name: Lea Connolly. Committed murders: 41. Family:..." Her smile grew wider, "None."

Axel walked right through her; he unlocked the door with shaking hands and slammed it open. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down; he had to remember how to get out of this godforsaken house. Was it left or right? Axel stopped in his tracks when he saw the girl appear again. He hurried in the opposite direction and tried not to bump into the million things that were in his way.

"I'm Naminé. You killed my father. You will pay, Axel. You and your family will pay for this."

It was like her voice traveled down the hallway and became louder the closer to Axel it got. He didn't stop to see where she was, if she could teleport then it really didn't matter. All the doors he tried were locked and he wasn't sure he knew where he was anymore. There was one more door at the end of the hallway, and Axel was ready to kick it in just to get out, but there was no need. The door was open and he hurried inside the room, running down the stairs that led to a room with only one window, high up on the wall where the moonlight came through and illuminated a small portion of the floor.

"My father was going to set us free." Naminé appeared right where the moonlight struck and Axel stepped back slowly. "We're doomed to be slaves forever. I-I'm N-na-na-mi – I'm Naminé." Her voice distorted again and it seemed like she was in pain, "I have your memories, Lea."

She looked straight at him even though he was standing in the dark. She was smiling again, but as the moonlight grew stronger she began to scream. Axel was sure that the security would react to her scream that threatened to turn his bones into dust.

"I can delete you."

She was flickering and as she disappeared, the lights in the room went on. The next thing Axel knew, he's on a lawn in a park downtown with the dark bag in his hands. He shook his head and made sure that he had everything with him. He thought that he would forget that weird night, he thought that he had been scared by a hologram and that what she had said had no importance. That was until the nightmares began.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

They had dumped the unconscious Xigbar by Shiso General Hospital. Axel was forced to knock him out before leaving him there; he couldn't risk having Xigbar making a fuss and getting people to meddle. They had left the car in a parking lot north of Shiso and made sure that they had left no traces of themselves in the car. The sun was setting, but it was still warm outside. They had both changed into different shirts. Saïx had a long-sleeved shirt underneath his t-shirt with the Himeji-castle print on; he had hidden the dragon that was visible on his neck by letting his hair out and buying a cap to keep it in place.

Axel had also put a long-sleeved shirt underneath his "I love Hyôgo" t-shirt. He hadn't bought a cap, despite knowing that he should hide his fiery-red hair to not attract any unwanted attention. They had been walking for hours to get to the south of Shiso, had stopped for food at McDonald's, and were hoping to find a small, cheap inn to stay at during the night. The money Axel had robbed from that gas station back at the highway had to last until they found other means to get more. Aside from that, they needed to get a car. Axel was seriously thinking about stealing one, but if the owner of the stolen car was to report it, they could get caught by the police and Axel was not going to risk that.

Axel looked out of the glassed cubical he was standing in, keeping an eye on Saïx, who was sitting on a bench right outside, drinking a Frappuccino from the 7-eleven across the street. Axel put the coins in the telephone and dialed a number he knew by heart, although he had never called it before. He was stomping his foot with impatience as the ring signals went by, about to give up hope when someone on the other side of the line picked up.

"Yamamura residence. This is Leon speaking."

Axel frowned. He hadn't expected someone else to pick up the phone, "I'm looking for Arlene."

"Who is this?" The man asked in an annoyingly gentle tone.

"A coworker. It's really urgent; may I please talk to Arlene?"

The man put the receiver away and called for Arlene. Axel could hear them talk a bit before Arlene walked up to the phone and picked up the receiver, "Yes?"

Axel put a few more coins into the phone, "Arlene, it's me. Axel." He sighed, "I need your help."


	4. Aid The Enemy

**Title:** Last Train  
><strong>Author:<strong> nikki_ntm  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> Shattered Apocalypse  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> 4/20  
><strong>Genre<strong>: Drama/Adventure/Suspense  
><strong>Rating:<strong> M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.  
><strong>Setting:<strong> Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N:** Comments and reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy!

x

**Chapter 4: Aid the Enemy**

Arlene had decided that it would be better if they met somewhere public; she didn't want her neighbors to suspect anything. She sure had turned her life around these past three months; she had found someone she cared about enough to not want him to know of her past, she lived in a "residence", and she had gotten out of China Town. They were going to meet at the Himeji Station tomorrow morning during rush hour. Her trust issues were ever present, despite the fact that Axel had ever done anything that directly affected her. She had never gotten along with her biological father, so Axel killing him couldn't really count, not if he had any say in it, anyway.

In the morning they hurried to the road station to catch the bus. The trip there was over fast, and they got to the Himeji Station about an hour earlier than they had to. The place was swamped with people; the Japanese summer didn't seem to frighten the tourists away, for they all seemed eager to find the Himeji Castle or take pictures of each other in front of every novelty they came across, holding their fingers up in a victory pose.

"Where were you going to meet?"

They walked slowly towards the station. That was probably the first thing Saïx had said since yesterday after he went to buy a frappuccino. Axel thought that Saïx was giving him the silent treatment for beating up a family member, or that he might be scheming something behind his back.

"Outside the entrance."

"Let's go inside and stand by the information desk."

"Why?"

It was a stupid question. Axel knew why, but he didn't like to think about it. Arlene had been one of the few people he had been able to trust the past few years, always for the exchange of something else of course, but that was probably the best he was going to get in the world he was living in.

"Because she might screw you over."

They walked inside the station and stopped by the information desk. They both reached for tourist pamphlets and flipped through them slowly. As they stood, Axel's stomach growled - the last thing he ate had been the lunch Yuna cooked for them. He had only stayed there for three days but he had really grown to like that little village. It seemed to be protected from all the corruption in the real world, but then he had ruined it by just being there. He hoped that Jecht was fine; Yuna seemed capable enough to get the bullet out and she knew her way around herbs with healing powers.

Saïx nudged him and looked over at the entrance. Axel was hoping that Arlene would show up alone. He just needed a break, a small push to get on the right track and this was it. With Arlene's help they could get to Shimonoseki unnoticed and hopefully cross the border to get to South Korea.

Ten past ten they showed up, not Arlene, but them. Three familiar men with lotus tattoos barely visible on their necks. Axel gulped; they were Marluxia's goons.

The goons were searching for them. The crowd was sparse enough for them to find Axel and Saïx easily, especially since Axel was the only one with fire red hair. Saïx was pulling him away when one of the men noticed them.

"Shit."

The man told the others and they quickly turned around to see if the man had seen correctly. There was a shout. That was all they needed to get moving. This was like a never ending exercise; if they didn't have to walk over mountains and through forests, they had to run away from homicidal goons. Had it been yesterday Saïx would have been running in their direction and not away from them. He didn't have much of a choice now. Xigbar would convince Xemnas that Saïx had turned his back on the family. Saïx's days as the second in command of one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in Japan were over. Marluxia was surely thrilled.

They ran past crowds of people and over benches. The only way to top this would be if the police got involved right about now. The upside of this was that not even Marluxia's goons would be stupid enough to pull out their weapons here, not unless they wanted to be a finger or two lighter. They ran outside the station and were met by humid and feverish heat. The goons were surprisingly fast. Axel could outrun most, but that was usually when he was in better condition and had gotten more than four hours of sleep at night.

They got off the main road and into smaller streets with less people. They ran through a maze of small roads by the buildings until they found a larger container for trash. There was no time to even frown at the smell that came from within it before they jumped in and closed the large lid over themselves. They were both struggling with catching their breaths; the smell was atrocious and made their eyes burn. Axel wasn't sure if he wanted to throw up because of the morning run or because of the bag of leftover food beside him that was at least a week old.

It felt like they were in there for an eternity before they dared to jump out.

They had lost their tail.

The three men were nowhere to be seen. Axel brushed off the trash that had stuck to his clothes; he was going to turn to see how Saïx was doing, but was suddenly shoved away when Saïx hurried over to the closest bush and vomited.

Saïx stood up straight and moved away from the bush, looking feverish, although that could be because of the weather, he was paler than usual. He glared at Axel and clenched his fists tightly, "Tell me what's going on. I will only ask this once." His voice was low and threatening.

"It...this will sound weird." Axel sighed and scratched the back of his neck. That was the understatement of the year. He knew that if there ever was a time to tell Saïx, this was it. He cleared his throat and looked down onto the ground.

"You know the mission at Kenzui's place?" He looked at Saïx to see his reaction, he appeared impatient. "I never gave you the full report on what went on that night. He had set up a security hologram that looked like a teenage girl and she kind of chased me out of the house and said some really weird stuff. Every night since, I've had nightmares where she shows up and kills you on Xemnas' orders."

There was more to say but Axel paused when he saw the incredulous look on Saïx face. It was going to be difficult to convince him that he was being serious. Axel was fully aware that it sounded like the ramblings of a mad man; he had spent days thinking that he should just put a bullet through his head before he completely lost it.

"You are a real piece of work, you know that?" Saïx was shaking with anger, pacing around, trying to calm himself down before he exploded. "I'm here because you had a couple of nightmares?"

"Not a couple of, hundreds of nightmares. Every night, every time I close my eyes to sleep I have to see you die. It's gotta be a bad omen or something. Maybe I picked up some information or maybe I eavesdropped on a conversation without meaning to and heard that Xemnas was going to off you – I had to do something."

They fell into silence. The birds chirped in the background and the traffic from the main road could be heard from where they stood. Axel couldn't really tell what Saïx was thinking, the only time when Saïx showed emotion was when he was well pissed off. To be able to read Saïx he had to take a moment to look after subtle clues, how he moved his hands, sat, tension in his shoulders and other things that his brain was too tired to pick up on now.

"Let's go." Saïx walked past him, back the way they had come from. Axel hurried after him, perplexed that Saïx was suddenly giving orders instead of beating his face in.

"Where are we going?"

"Do you have cash?"

"Yeah, why? What are you going to do? I don't think those guys will stop chasing us for a couple of thousand yen."

"We're going to pay Larxene a visit. I know where she lives."

**~ooo**~

A soft breeze blew through the small town square and made the flowers at a stand sway with it. It was well past ten and Arlene couldn't remember the last time she had felt this relieved. She was done. The family had no more use for her now that Axel had been taken care of. She thought that she would feel sad and guilty for what she had done, and she was sure she would in due time, but right now everything felt so light. She had even prepared lunch and taken it to her boyfriend who was in a workshop by the harbor, preparing for next year's dragon boat race.

She had been really tense these past couple of days, she realized. Now she could breathe easy, she felt like she wanted to do things. She had bought a bouquet of lent lilies from the lady that always stood by the flower stand that she had passed by so many times without ever seeing it. Her cell phone began to play a classical tune and she reached for it in her purse. She smiled when she saw who it was.

"Hello."

"_Hi!__"_ There was a lot of noise in the background. Arlene recognized some of the voices; they were probably working on the boat. They wanted it to be perfect for the race. _"__I__ just __finished __lunch. __It__ was__ absolutely__ delicious.__ We__ should __make __this__ a __tradition.__" _

"Yeah? I think that could be arranged." She strolled down the road towards the bridge to go back home. She didn't work on Fridays so she figured she could start preparing a nice dinner. Arlene wasn't the greatest cook but she was keen on learning.

"_What are you doing? Are you home?" _

"Not yet. I stopped by for some things for dinner. You know that concert you were talking about?"

"_The one at Aioi High school?" _

"Yeah. I was thinking that we should go."

"_Are you sure? You didn't seem to be up for it when I asked." _

"I changed my mind. We should go out more."

Leon chuckled. It was nice to hear him being happy. He wasn't the most expressive man Arlene had ever met, he was withdrawn and he was very picky with what people he socialized with. They had met when Arlene first started to work at Eraqus' restaurant in China Town. Leon was a regular. He always stopped by at lunchtime, 12:00 sharp. He worked as a salaryman at the Japanese headquarters for Nestlé in Sannomiya. Arlene hadn't thought much of him back then; she was in too much trouble to be looking for company. Leon had minded his own business as well until he, one day, decided to comment on her soba-noodles. Apparently they didn't taste like Eraqus' soba-noodles, which was good. It had been a change in his everyday life. Leon had struck her as a strange man at first. Little had Arlene known that she would end up moving away with him.

"_I'm gonna be late today. Not too late for dinner though. I'll be home around six. Just wanted to let you know."_

"Okay. Be careful, your buddies don't sound like they're focused on what they're doing," Arlene commented when she heard someone sing loudly.

"_I will. See you later." _

"Yeah." Arlene held her breath for a moment and she knew Leon was doing the same. She knew that she loved him, she just couldn't quite bring herself to say it. They weren't the kind of people who said it like it was nothing, but for some reason it still felt like she should. She hung up and flipped the cell phone close with a sigh.

"Stupid, stupid..." She hit the cell phone against her forehead softly, making all the ornaments hanging from it tingle. This was the first normal relationship she had ever had; no one could blame her for being scared of ruining it. She didn't want to come off as pushy or desperate and end up scaring him away. All in due time, she reminded herself. There was no need to beat herself up for something she wasn't ready to do. She had made quite a trip from the dump she had been living in to here. If anything, she should give herself a pat on the back for what she had accomplished so far.

She pulled out her keys from her purse and walked up slowly to her house. The house was painted white with a black roof. It was two stories high but it wasn't all that wide. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Downstairs there was a kitchen, a living room, and another bathroom. The house came with a small garden that Arlene wanted to attend to as soon as she had the time. They had been living here for roughly a month. It would probably take them ages to pay it off, but she liked the idea that one day it would be theirs and that they could make it into their home in the meantime.

Arlene had just slipped into her slippers and stepped inside the house when she wrinkled her nose at the sudden stench. She put the bag of groceries down onto the table in the kitchen and left the bouquet of flowers next to it to go back and lock the door when she suddenly walked into someone who was all too familiar. She looked up and found herself staring straight into Axel's emerald green eyes. She held back a shriek as she stepped back; trembling at the sight she thought she would never have to see again.

"Hello, Arlene. Missed me?"

Saïx locked the door and pulled the curtains over the window in the hallway. Arlene shook her head in disbelief. This wasn't supposed to happen. Marluxia said that he would take care of everything, and yet here they were, in her hallway, invading the life she had fought so hard to protect. Axel grabbed her arm and pulled her close.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you want me dead, Arlene. Is that true? No lies now, or I'll have to do something we'll both regret."

"You wouldn't kill me." But Arlene wasn't sure anymore.

"I wouldn't. Saïx however would love to put a bullet or two in your pretty head, and I'm not sure I would want to stop him. Did you help Marluxia find us?"

Arlene nodded and tried to move away from Axel and the unbearable stench coming from him. He pushed her away and sighed loudly. This was not going well, not by a long-shot. Arlene glanced at Saïx; it was unnerving to see how calm he looked in situations like this. She looked at the watch hanging on the wall in the hallway. She had approximately four hours to get rid of them in whatever way that meant. She couldn't have them here when Leon returned.

"I'll give you whatever you want as long as you leave."

"Whatever I want, huh?" Axel turned around and faced her again. The look in his eyes frightened Arlene more than Saïx did and she gulped, searching the room for anything that she could use as a weapon, although that would be stupid since they were probably armed. "I just wanted to get away from here, Arlene. That's all I wanted, but now thanks to you that's going to be more of a hassle than I had ever imagined it to be. Do you know how long it has taken us to get here? Four days! Four days from Kobe!"

"I'll give you money. And a car." Arlene's heart was beating fast. She hadn't felt this trapped in a long time and she didn't want to have to experience this again.

"We'll stay here until we're finished," Axel said, "Maybe I'll finally get to meet that boyfriend of yours, and don't you dare to call the police or cause a scene 'cuz I'll gladly shoot anyone who walks through that door. Is that understood?"

Arlene could only nod and hope that she would find a way to keep Leon away while Axel and Saïx were in their house.

**~ooo~**

Two hours had gone by and they were still there. Axel had recently gotten out of the shower upstairs while Saïx was in the bath downstairs. Arlene had been tied up while they were both cleaning themselves. She had put out clean clothes for them before they did so.

It was strange to see Axel in Leon's clothes. It somehow didn't suit Axel to look normal.

Axel sat in the kitchen by the table while he watched Arlene make him a sandwich. She had barely put the plate down in front of him before Axel took it and ate away. Arlene hadn't planned to say anything; there was nothing she could say until she saw a small marking on Axel's neck that she had seen somewhere else before.

"Is that a new tattoo?" She asked, hoping that he would say that it was. Axel looked questioningly at her, touching his neck where she had pointed. He shook his head no. Arlene felt her heart sink.

"Have you been having nightmares?" She asked carefully, looking down on the table as she played with the napkin she had brought for Axel. The look on his face told her that he had. She took a deep breath and propped her elbows onto the table to rest her head against her hands.

"How would you know?"

"I'll tell you if you promise to leave before five. And you will want to know, Axel. The nightmares won't stop until you do something about it."

Axel nodded eagerly, even putting away the small piece of bread he had left. Arlene could only imagine that Axel had been suffering for this since that night when he killed her biological father. How long had that been? Three months? No wonder Axel was so keen on knowing how to get rid of them.

"My... um, Ansem was a researcher. He did a lot of research on memories and the impact it had on people. He tried to make a device that could store people's memories, kind of like files on a computer, but he didn't have the money to do it and no one thought of his work as ethical. What's the point of storing people's memories, right? He ended up receiving money for his research from the yakuza, from Xemnas."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting there." Arlene got up from her chair and went back to the counter, starting with another sandwich to keep her hands busy, "Memories define who you are. The events that created those memories define who you are. Ansem wanted to map all that out to see if he could erase the bad and give a person another chance at life. His test subjects were marked with the kind of X you have on your neck."

"I wasn't a test subject! The only time I saw that old man was that night..."

"You killed him. His computer was probably programmed to avenge him in the only way he knew how, by changing you and altering your memories."

"How do you know all of this? You said that he abandoned you when you were fifteen. That's thirteen years ago."

Arlene held back her shoulder long, blond hair to reveal a small X on the back of her neck. "I was the prototype. He didn't manage to change me the way he wanted so he replaced me with that computer. She would never disobey him the way that I did."

She disliked the sudden look of pity in Axel's eyes. Arlene was glad that she had been strong enough to not let her father change her. Had she known the extent of the project her father was working on back then, she would have destroyed his works, but she had been too busy feeling sorry for herself.

"So the nightmares are supposed to make you do stuff you wouldn't normally do?"

"I'm not sure. My nightmares were always about my past, they were supposed to break me. He used to say that it made my DNA more accessible. When you went to his place, what did you take? Did you take any files; did you break into his lab?"

"I was ordered to gather the data. It was seven USB-sticks in different colors in a metal box in his safe."

There were more people involved then. Arlene went back to the table and sat down across from Axel with a serious expression on her face. "The computer took something important from you, whether it was memories or not, I don't know, but you have to get it back. He usually had time limits for his tests and the computer is probably the same. If you don't take back what she took from you, she'll be able to delete you."

"I don't know what that means! What does 'delete you' mean? Will a hologram show up one day and shoot me? Will she poison my food? What? What is it I'm up against here?"

"I don't know. Ansem always said that there are worse things than dying. I'm not sure what he is up to if he's avenging his death. Axel, this is really serious. You need to sort this out before you go anywhere." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I will give you the only lead that I have. Once we're done here you will forget me, Axel. I don't want to have anything to do with you or the family ever again." Arlene got up and hurried to the living room where she searched for a small, pocket-sized book that looked old and worn. She went back to the kitchen and reached it to Axel. "This is the only thing I have left of him."

Axel took it and put into the pouch of the sweatshirt Arlene had given him. She wasn't sure if there was anything else Axel wanted to say, she would probably never know either. The silence was broken when Saïx walked out of the bathroom in Leon's clothes and the other one's in a plastic bag.

"We're going."

Axel looked over at Saïx and got up while Arlene finished up the sandwiches she had been making. She packed them up and walked into the hallway where Axel and Saïx had helped themselves to the sneakers she had laid out for them. Leon had been thinking of giving them to charity anyway, so he wouldn't miss them. When Axel turned to face her, she gave him the bag with the sandwiches. She walked up to a small table that stood against the staircase and underneath a mirror, and searched its only drawer for the car keys.

"Walk two blocks down and go left. There's a car park there. This goes to the white car that's parked up in the far left corner. There's money under the backseat." She gave the car keys to Axel and looked him in the eye determinately. "Never again," she said quietly. Axel nodded briefly.

Once she closed the door behind them, she leaned against it and sincerely hoped that this was the last time she would ever have to see them again. She looked at the clock; she still had time to make dinner. Arlene took a deep breath and tried to shake off the lingering memory of the look in Axel's eyes when she finally cut him off.


	5. Old Habits Die Hard

**Title:** Last Train  
><strong>Author:<strong> nikki_ntm  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> Shattered Apocalypse  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> 5/20  
><strong>Genre<strong>: Drama/Adventure/Suspense  
><strong>Rating:<strong> M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.  
><strong>Setting:<strong> Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N:** Comments and reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy!

x

**Chapter 5: Old Habits Die Hard**

Axel sat up with a gasp, his eyes open wide as he woke up when Saïx shook him softly. He felt damp with sweat and heavy with sleep. His heart was beating hard in his chest and his mouth felt dry. There was a low buzz in his ears and he was seeing color spots that slowly disappeared. He looked down on his arm when he felt that Saïx held something out to him, he took the water bottle that was offered and drank half of it before he put it down.

"Nightmare?" Saïx asked in a sleepy murmur as he accommodated himself underneath one of the quilts they had found in the trunk. He actually made it look comfortable to sleep in the front seat, with his knees folded underneath him and his upper body twisted slightly to avoid falling asleep on one arm.

"Yeah."

They had parked at a rest stop by the Sanyo Expressway. According to the signs they were at a place called Maya, not that it mattered. They weren't there for the sights. A big truck had parked nearby and the driver seemed to be sound asleep. Axel laid back down and tried to stretch his legs in the small space. The car was a white, 1981-model Nissan Maxima that was in a surprisingly good condition for its age, but it wasn't the best place to get a good night's sleep.

Axel put his hands into the pouch of the sweater to make sure that the small book Arlene had given him was still there. She had said some really weird stuff back there, and Axel wasn't sure if he believed her or not. It did sound like something out of a TV-show, but at the same time he was fully aware of all the underground medical research that was going on. The yakuza was leading in the black market for organs and they kept close contact with iffy doctors and researchers who couldn't fund themselves. Had Arlene's father been one of those iffy doctors?

"Saïx?"

"Mm?"

"I have a huge favor to ask of you."

"A bigger favor than having me sleeping in an ancient car, in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, covered in a quilt that smells like basement?"

"... Yeah."

"Ask."

"I need you to trust me on something."

"I thought what I just mentioned covered that."

"... Trust me for real, I mean. You're here because I gave you no choice."

"How insightful of you. Did that come with the rest of your personality change or is that new?"

Axel chuckled and rubbed his eyes. They hadn't bickered like this as much as they used to do for quite some time, it felt nice to be doing it again. There was a comforting feeling that came with it; maybe they hadn't changed as much as Axel feared.

He scratched his new tattoo without even noticing. This new obstacle couldn't be that difficult to overcome, he had to take back whatever it was that hologram had taken from him and that would be the end of it. He sat up and sighed as he scratched the back of his neck, these seats were making him all itchy. He took out the small book and shook Saïx's seat to make sure that he was awake. As weird as the story would sound, he had to tell Saïx and get him on board on this. Axel told him everything that Arlene had said to him and ended it with a sigh.

"There should be a clue in this book, so it shouldn't be so difficult to track it down."

Saïx stared at the book before he took it and flipped through it quickly. There were a lot of diagrams and numbers amongst blocks of text. Some of it was written in Japanese, but there were entries in what he thought to be English and German as well. Saïx gave the book back to Axel.

"I know someone in Tokyo who should know where to start looking."

"Saïx, this guy wasn't one to talk about his research to anyone. Arlene is probably the closest we can get to him."

"He was Ansem's lab assistant."

Axel was going to say something but he ended up gaping. For some reason he had hoped that Saïx hadn't gotten involved with this part of the yakuza schemes, that Saïx wouldn't cave under all the pressure from the family members while he had been locked up.

"How do you know him?" Axel knew that Saïx had registered the accusing undertones in his question. He didn't look away in shame or anything; he simply looked back at Axel defiantly. He had only been doing what was best for the family; he didn't need to say it. Axel knew that look far too well, yet his stomach twisted with remorse at the thought of all the things he probably didn't know about Saïx.

"I met up with Ansem a couple of times when you were in prison. Xemnas needed the reports on how the project was proceeding, but he couldn't go himself, so I went there instead."

"What project?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask."

Axel took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. This was a bad time to get into an argument. Once they were out of the family's reach they could settle all the things they needed to settle.

"Where is he now?"

"Tokyo."

The conversation halted at the sound of a deafening scream from outside the parking lot. Axel reached for his gun and took a look at how many bullets were left. Five. Xigbar hadn't brought his best gear to deal with him. That goes to show what the old man really thought of him.

The windows were covered in a light mist from the warm air inside and the chilly wind outside that came from the man-made lake further away. Axel wiped the window with his hand and made a small circle in the middle of it, just enough to see the parking lot and the big truck that was parked there. The door to the driver's seat stood ajar and the light in the small cabin was lit.

"Fuck. You think he has someone with him?"

Saïx looked intently at the truck from where he sat, "I don't know. That scream didn't sound human." He saw a shadow flicker and disappear behind the truck. It was like a dark mist, with no shape.

"Did you see that?" Axel asked in a low whisper, assuming that Saïx had nodded.

The driver walked out from behind the truck, swaying back and forth. The man was short and was wearing a cap; there wasn't much else they could see in the dark.

"Is he drunk?"

"Maybe. I think he's coming this way."

"What the...!"

The man suddenly disappeared. The light in the cabin of the truck began to flicker until it stopped working, the temperature dropped and the mist was back on the glass again. Axel hurried to wipe it away, he couldn't believe his eyes. The truck driver had just disappeared in front of them. He had just gotten the mist away and was getting his face near to the window when the truck driver showed up. He looked at Axel through the window with a look of horror on his face. His eyes had rolled back into his head and his mouth was distorted into a silent scream, and he clutched the window with stiff fingers, smearing what only could be blood on the window.

"Fuck!"

Axel flew back at the sight of the disfigured man. Saïx hurried into the driver's seat and turned on the engine. He floored the gas pedal and drove back to the highway, showing no signs of wanting to slowdown. Axel kept looking at the rear window just to make sure that whatever that was, wasn't following them.

"Did you fucking see that?" Axel finally turned to Saïx and broke the silence. "Someone had ripped his heart out!" The smears of blood were still on the window. It had felt so surreal. It wasn't possible for a person to move around without a heart, was it? Whatever had happened back there was messed up. Axel had just assumed that the truck driver was alone, but there must have been someone there with him.

Axel looked over at Saïx when he realized that he hadn't said anything, "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah. I just, I think I've...seen that before..."

**~ooo~**

"Hi."

Leon gave Arlene a quick peck on the cheek while he reached for the glass of orange juice Arlene had poured for him. She turned around and saw that he was all dusty with wood chip and it was getting on the floor. She didn't even have to roll her eyes before Leon held up a hand while he drank up the juice in one go to get to speak first.

"I'm going to clean that up. Promise," he said once he put down the glass onto the counter. He removed the lid from the pot on the stove and took in the scent of the curry Arlene was making and smiled, "This smells wonderful. Is it done soon?"

"In ten minutes. You can go and wash up in the meantime or there's going to be wood chip all over the house."

Leon hurried out to the hallway and jumped out of his marine-blue, one piece suit and put it in a corner. Underneath he was wearing a green T-shirt and blue sweatpants. He walked back into the kitchen, washed his hands and began to set the table. He was expecting Arlene to say something about him not going to wash up, but she didn't seem to be paying attention.

"How was work?"

Arlene stirred the curry slowly, "Nothing out of the ordinary."

She worked at the help desk in Aioi Station. Most of the people who passed through there were people who lived close, so there weren't many who needed help, unless there were delays, but that rarely happened.

"No rude costumers or anything?"

"Nope."

"Have I done something wrong?"

Arlene snapped out of her thoughts and turned around to face Leon. Where did that come from? She must have looked as confused as she felt because Leon decided to quickly explain the reason for his question.

"You've been acting weird lately, ever since you said that we should go to the school concert. We really don't have to go if you don't want to; we can go somewhere else, where there won't be crowds." He walked up to her and embraced her tightly, "I'm not good with relationships. You might be the first one to put up with me this long. If I do something wrong I need you to tell me..."

It had been two days since Axel and Saïx had been here. Arlene had been out of it since, she couldn't stop thinking about the family or Ansem or her past. She thought that she had done a good job hiding it, but she had been proven wrong. She threw her arms around Leon and snuggled up close. It was nice to feel so safe in his arms, it didn't matter what her rational and usually cynical side said about her feelings - the sensation was stronger than any bitterness she had left from her past life.

"It's not you," she said, "I've been thinking too much and I've bummed myself out. I didn't mean to worry you."

She tried to hold back a smile when she felt Leon's fingers under her chin; he gently tilted her head upward so that she looked at him. He looked at her with a serious expression that almost turned into a frown; it always amazed her the way he liked to look into her eyes. She had many times heard the phrase "I get lost in your eyes" in cheesy love songs, but by the way Leon looked at her, it really seemed like he lost himself in her eyes while searching for something; the meaning of life, the answers to questions that were never asked, anything. Arlene got onto her toes and kissed him softly. She smiled at the surprised sound that escaped him as she ran her arms around his neck.

There was a hiss from the stove when the curry started to run over the brim of the pot. Arlene broke the kiss and put the lid away for the curry to settle. She removed the pot from the stove and turned to get the plates from the table.

"I wasn't done," Leon said with a small pout. Arlene smiled as she put rice and curry on the plates.

"There's no dessert until after dinner," she said and went back to the table to sit down and eat.

Leon sat down on his seat and reached for his fork with a small smile playing on his lips. They settled into a comfortable silence as they ate their dinner. It was kind of funny how life worked sometimes, Arlene mused. She never thought that she would find someone like Leon. A guy like that wasn't for her. Leon was someone she would only be able to read about in a fairytale, and yet here she was, eating dinner with her Prince Charming, God forbid it would ever slip her lips. Leon would probably think that she had gone mad, or worse, he could end up liking that name and have her call him that in public.

"Zell was saying that his sister was coming back after a year studying abroad. He asked me if we could babysit her on Friday."

"What do you mean babysit? How old is she?"

"Well, she's a year older than Zell so, 26."

"Is she like Zell?"

Leon snickered. Zell was loud, obnoxious and wanted to make friends with everyone. Arlene didn't really like him and Leon could understand why, although he had come to like him after working with him for a while. Aside from doing Zell a favor, Leon thought it would be good for Arlene to spend time with someone else, a woman, so that they could talk about girl-stuff that Leon couldn't wrap his head around.

"From what I've heard, she's easier to deal with than Zell. That's all I know. I thought it would be nice to have someone over, and Zell would owe us a favor. He has a date on Friday and he doesn't want to leave his sister alone."

Arlene thought about it for a bit. It would be nice to have someone over. That's what normal people did; they made friends and invited them to dinner, talked and played games. It was time to expand the horizons, besides, the girl would only be with them for a day.

"Okay, let's have her over. What's her name?"

"Rinoa."

**~ooo~**

The neon signs, the noise, the smell of cigarette smoke and the sight of the yakuza members of lowest rank felt oddly comforting. They were back in their turf although in another city. Axel hadn't been in Kabuki-cho in years but it still looked pretty much the same. The resistance against yakuza was still going strong judging by all the fliers going around about stores not being involved with criminal gangs. It was easy to sit high upon a horse when times were good, Axel knew that the second things turned ugly all these people would go to the yakuza for help. This part of town would always belong to the yakuza and the families would fight for it too. This was their main playground in Tokyo, and it was important for them to keep it that way.

Saïx walked down the street, knowing exactly where they had to go to find this lab assistant. None of them were worried that someone would recognize them. Most of the yakuza here had never met the real bosses and those who had were probably not aware that the Ingô-family's right hand man had gone rogue. That was usually not something the boss wanted to slip.

They walked into a club that looked like any other on this street, except that this club had no flier stating how it hadn't anything to do with the yakuza. Saïx navigated through the club towards a table further into the room. There were girls dancing in cages that were sporadically placed in the room. Saïx sat down by a table, across from a middle-aged man with blond, long hair, sunken eyes and high cheekbones. The man turned his gaze from one of the girls in the cages and looked at Axel and Saïx with an amused expression.

"How the mighty have fallen," he said and leaned back into his chair with a smug smile. He glanced at the clothes they were wearing and seemed to shudder at the state of them both. "What happened to you?"

"Where did Ansem hide his experiments?" Saïx glared firmly at the lab assistant, but he didn't seem too keen on helping as he laughed at the question.

"Where no one can find them. Your family made a great mistake by killing him. He might have been an idealist fool, but he had experiments that could have been of good use to you." The music coming from the speakers in every corner masked the sound of Saïx unsecuringthe gun underneath the table.

"I'll shoot off the reason you're here if you don't skip the bull and just tell me where he hid his experiments, Dr. Even."

As the doctor paled, Axel sat up straight and held his legs close together. It wasn't right for someone to sound so polite when making a threat like that.

"It- it's complicated," he began and gulped, he didn't dare to move. "He had many locations to keep his research safe. W-why are you interested in him now? I thought Xemnas had gotten what he was searching f-for."

"You'll write down those locations and passwords for me, doctor."

Axel took out a notepad and a pencil and put it in front of Dr. Even. He took the pencil in his trembling hand and fidgeted in his seat briefly. He knew that Saïx never came with an empty threat, he had been unfortunate enough to get a glimpse of the cruelty of this man in front of him and yet he hesitated to comply with what he was requesting.

"I-I don't know all of them..."

"Write down the ones you do know about, if there is anything I want to ask about later I'll hunt you down and ask. Remember, doctor, you're here to bring solutions not problems."

Axel wasn't sure if it was the second threat or the polite smile that got Dr. Even writing down what he needed to write down to not become a limb lighter. It was strange to see Saïx like this. Axel knew that Saïx was capable of smiling for real, enjoy things, and feel like a normal person would, but it was sickening to see that smile with eyes empty of emotion. For some reason it looked almost like he was _enjoying_ the situation.

Once the doctor was done with the list, Axel took it and looked through it. Dr. Even smiled nervously, he wanted to speak but he was waiting for Axel to come with a verdict that would either give Saïx a reason to shoot him or to put down the gun.

"I have written them down in location order, from nearest to farthest..." he said finally when Axel put the list away. It was then he noticed the X on Axel's neck. He sneered but gulped when he looked back at Saïx, "He's been marked. I thought you had killed Ansem."

"Ansem is dead," Saïx said. Dr. Even seemed confused and he glanced at Axel's neck again. Axel did not like that look one bit. There was nothing as worrying as a supposed doctor that looked puzzled by something he deemed to be impossibility when said impossibility clearly had occurred.

"If that's the hologram's doing, you have seven months to undo it."

"What do you know about this?"

"V-very little." Dr. Even seemed to just have realized that he had said too much and that the more he said less likely it would be that these two would let him off the hook. "It's all I know without accessing the data."

"If we brought you the data, would you be able to take a look?"

Dr. Even hesitated, looking around as if there would be anyone there who would come to his rescue. It were times like these he wondered who had said that one should do everything for science.

"I hear that you're enjoying your new position as a professor in Tokyo University's department for chemistry. What's their policy on employees with deep involvement with the yakuza, doctor?"

"I c-could take a quick look..."

Once Saïx put the gun away, the doctor exhaled in relief and relaxed in his chair. Axel caught Dr. Even glancing at Saïx with curiosity and for a second he thought that the doctor might have something to say, but he leaned back in his chair as his unwanted company got up to leave.

Once outside the club, Saïx turned to Axel, "Where's the nearest location?"

"Roppongi." Axel grabbed Saïx by his wrist when he was about to walk off. "Give me the gun."

"Trust is a two-way street, Axel," He said defiantly, but he reached for it and gave it to Axel discreetly. There was no point in arguing in the middle of the street over a loaded weapon. The police had strengthened their presence in Kabuki-cho and there was a police officer passing by every other fifteen minutes. "You sure it's in Roppongi?"

"Nearby. Toranomon Hospital."

Axel followed Saïx back to the car. The drive to Roppongi wasn't long. The traffic at this time of day was light; no one in their right mind took the car into the city core on party nights. The neon signs were more illuminating than the street-lights, there were people out on the streets either going to a club or coming from one, and cabs were lined up down the main street of Roppongi that they drove by to get to Toranomon Hospital.

There were a few cars in the parking lot and a few people out by the hospital's entrance. Axel parked the car and he had barely put in the handbrake before Saïx had gone out of the car, with a quick glimpse on the list. Axel hurried after Saïx, cursing under his breath. Had Saïx been here before to meet up with Ansem in his secret lab?

They walked around the hospital to get to where the hospital's inventory was and entrance to the basement levels. Boxes stood in piles here, and they were marked with different labels. Two men were unloading a truck further away, there was no risk that they would see Axel and Saïx sneak around, and the top of their heads were barely visible behind the boxes. A small ramp led down to a big metal door with a narrow and long window on it.

They were walking down the ramp when the door opened and a man in scrubs walked out, lightening a cigarette. He turned his head and didn't even have the time to register the two trespassers. He was pushed up the wall by Saïx; Axel didn't even see the utility knife in Saïx's hand until it was too late. The limb body had barely touched ground before Saïx turned to the door and opened it while putting away the utility knife into his pocket.

Saïx didn't care that he was leaving fingerprints everywhere, he wasn't registered anywhere. He didn't exist in this system. Axel hadn't existed either until he had gone to prison where they took his fingerprints, name and everything else that could be important to know. Their parents had never made an effort to get them registered into the system. They didn't believe in the system, they thought that they could keep their children in their small world and they had hoped that it would be enough to give them a safe upbringing.

They went three floors underground where they had to push in a code into the elevator to get access. The lab they walked into looked like any other part of a hospital, the walls were a clinical white, the floor was a light gray, there were medical things lying around everywhere. Saïx walked up to a small trolley and pulled a pair of latex gloves and handed them over to Axel.

"Let's search this place quickly. I don't want to be here longer than necessary."

Saïx walked up to the sink where he washed his hands clean from the blood. He used enough detergent to make his hands white with all the foam. Axel searched for anything that could be remotely interesting, although he wasn't paying as much attention as he should.

"How many did you kill while I was gone?"

"What's it to you?" Saïx snapped, "Don't ask stupid questions and keep looking for the data."

He looked questioningly at Saïx. His coldness scared him at times, especially when it showed during situations he wasn't prepared for. Saïx was completely unfazed by the deed he had just committed, it hadn't even been necessary to kill the man. It slowly dawned on Axel that Saïx had done it because he was angry. He wasn't sure why though, but he wished that he could just read Saïx's mind to see what it was he was hiding.

Saïx seemed to sense Axel's doubts, and he said with a strangely soft voice, "He took something from me too, and I need to know what it was."


	6. Follow the Dove

****Title:** **Last Train**  
><strong>Author:<strong> **nikki_ntm**  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **Shattered Apocalypse**  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> **6/20**  
><strong>Genre<strong>: **Drama/Adventure/Suspense**  
><strong>Rating:<strong> **M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**  
><strong>Characters:<strong> **Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> **Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N: **Merry Christmas everyone! And a Happy New Year too, if I don't make it next week!

x

**Chapter 6: Follow the Dove**

**~ooo~**

**1999 - Twelve Years Ago  
><strong>

**~ooo~**

"Isa!"

Lea hurried up to his friend just in time to see him quickly close his books and put them in a neat pile, as if that would make them invisible.

"Your mom noticed that you'd gone." He took a bite of his apricot and sat down across from Isa and flipped through the book on top. _Advanced__ Equations,_ Lea couldn't even begin to understand all the numbers and letters combined together. He only had to give the pile a quick glance to see that the next book was nothing that would interest him.

"She said that she had to go to the hospital to renew her prescription, and she told me to tell you to not slack off. Technically, you're not slacking off, so lucky for you, I'm not gonna rat you out." Lea grinned and put the book back onto the pile. Isa smiled back and took a deep breath. He always got dodgy when he was caught studying, even around Lea who had already found out about his secret aspirations.

"How're the bruises?" Lea inspected Isa and saw that he still had some band aids on his hand, but the bruises on his face were healing up fast. They were just a light shade of purple now compared to how they had been two days ago.

"Better. Mom nearly gave me new ones when she found out. Doing good deeds isn't what it's made out to be."

He had gotten into a fight with a couple of drunken youths that were out looking for trouble. Isa wasn't the one to get into fights, but he couldn't just stand by the sidelines and do nothing when he saw that the youths had gone after the old and homeless man Wakaji.

It had become a disturbingly popular "sport" amongst bored youths from the inner city to hunt down homeless people and beat them up just for the heck of it. From what Isa had learned that night, they didn't mind replacing the homeless with a _burakumin_, or _eta_, as they were better known as; descendants of filth. Hadn't it been for Lea, Isa would've been pushing up the daises now. He had taken quite a beating, but at least the old man Wakaji got away.

"I'm not so sure about that. What I do know is that whatever change you want to push through needs backup. When you didn't have backup those punks knocked you around, but when the backup arrived – me - the tables turned. Which is why you should come with me to the gathering the guys have put together on Saturday."

Isa frowned and crossed his arms. He knew who those guys were, Lea had been spending more and more time with them and Isa had done a few jobs for them, but he didn't like them at all, but he received a month worth of pay for every job he did for them and it had really made a difference back home.

"What kind of gathering?"

"Nothing too fancy. We're gonna meet down at the beach, kill some time. There'll be girls and booze." Lea nudged him and grinned.

"I don't know, Lea. I should study every minute of free time if I want to have the slightest chance of getting that scholarship." He looked down onto the table when Lea's face grew stern. Isa wasn't sure that Lea knew that his dislike for what Isa was doing showed, but it was enough to remind him that he might be losing his time.

"C'mon, you've been studying non-stop for days! You need to get out, meet people. There's a world out there the books don't tell you about. It's not just any guys either, Isa. These are the guys that will give you a job when no one else will. What do you say? Please?"

Lea tilted his head to the side and pouted while fluttering his eyelids. It didn't sound too dangerous. He didn't have to drink, but he could at least enjoy the company, make some new friends, and get away from here. Besides, Lea would be there. If anything were to happen, Isa knew that Lea had his back.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go with you, just stop doing that face. You're embarrassing yourself."

**~ooo~**

Saturday came. Isa wasn't sure what lie he had told his mother when she asked him about where he was going, but he had said that he would be out with Lea. His mother didn't usually respond well to that, but he knew that she was kind of grateful to Lea for having defended Isa from the inner city kids, so she just nodded sternly and told him to be careful when he walked out.

It was still sunny outside when they got to the beach. It had been raining a lot these past days due to it being rain season, but it would soon be summer and then came the unbearable heat.

Isa thought that he would be nervous, but Lea made him forget all about that when they had walked down the streets, talking nonsense.

There were three persons sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, hanging with their feet over the sand below. Isa had met them before. Seifer was sitting in the middle, drinking out of a can of beer. He had cut his blond hair short and was wearing his gray, long coat with a red cross on the one sleeve. Beside him sat his two, loyal friends, Fujin and Raijin.

Raijin had come here from Okinawa in search for a better life, but he hadn't done so well for himself obviously. He was always wearing sleeveless shirts in different colors regardless of the temperature outside. Fujin was allegedly a girl. She had a patch over her left eye and she had dyed her hair silver. Isa had never heard her say anything, but he had seen her hit Raijin whenever he said something that she didn't agree with. Maybe that was her way of communicating?

As they got closer and saw that no one else had showed up yet, Isa couldn't help but to wonder if Lea had been referring to Fujin when he said that there would be girls at the gathering.

Seifer nodded in Lea's direction and tossed him a can of beer.

He looked at Isa and grinned, "Well, look at you. Haven't seen you around for a while. I thought you were going to turn your back on your brothers."

Isa wasn't officially a part of their gang, and Seifer was aware of the moral issues Isa tackled with when doing jobs for them, but he wanted to expand the gang. It surely got him on the boss' good side.

"Of course he isn't," Lea said and flopped down on the sand, "We outcasts gotta stick together."

"We heard that you were attacked by a gang. If you join us, we'll avenge you."

Seifer never missed an opportunity to try to convince Isa to join them. He had thought that it would be easy once they had Lea; he hadn't counted on Isa being so stubborn when everything around him clearly told him that he needed people he could rely on in this world where dog eats dog.

"I'll manage."

"Yeah, but for how long? It's a dangerous world out there."

Isa sighed and shot Seifer an annoyed look, "My world will end up being more dangerous if I join a criminal organization."

Lea nearly choked on his beer, quickly looking at Isa, hoping that words would come to him quickly to stop Isa from digging his grave too deep, but Seifer beat him to it.

"Oh? Criminal organization, is it? That's not how it sounds when you need a job. You gonna live off Lea for the rest of your life? Is that the life you're gonna live, Isa? Kept like a woman?" He snickered and got Raijin and Fujin to join him as the subtext hit home.

"Don't talk shit, Seifer. Stop being an asshole and let everyone enjoy the party. Geez." Lea took another sip of his beer.

"That's no way to talk to your brother," Seifer crossed his arms and tried to look disappointed, "But I know that you mean well, Lea. I'll let it pass for this time."

Raijin looked over his shoulder to see if the others were coming, "Hey, Seifer, I thought the others would turn up, you know."

"Setzer is on his way. He said he had a couple of business men to con before he picked up the ladies."

"And Kuja?"

"Hell, if I knew. The boss wanted a word with him. I think the loan sharks need muscle to collect debts, so look forward to work." Seifer smirked and finished the last of his beer while he reached for another one. "Here, have one." He threw it to Isa and took another one for himself, "We don't want no buzzkill here, so join the party."

Isa wasn't sure if it was the pleading look in Lea's eyes, the peer-pressure in general or if it had been curiosity that made him drink the disgusting beer. Whatever it had been, he drank it and before he knew it he had agreed to a second and to a third. By the time the rest of the invited came around, they were all a little tipsy.

Setzer was in a suit, he had his long, silvery hair in a ponytail to keep it in place. He had a couple of star struck girls with him, they came from different high schools judging by the emblems on their uniforms. The only one Isa could recognize was the uniform for the girls who came from Shinwa's High School. He had been there when he had to sell meth to some girls; it had been one of his first jobs for this gang.

Setzer introduced everyone to everyone, but the names completely escaped Isa's mind. He noticed one girl more than the others though. She wasn't Japanese. She was blond, had really green eyes and a name he could hardly pronounce. It was the second time he had seen a Westerner up close like this. Isa never counted Lea as a Westerner, even though he was half-Irish. The second foreigner was his tutor from the local library.

"Seifer, where're your manners? Offer the girls something to drink, they have all had a rough day at school, haven't you, girls?"

"What are you drinking, Setzer?" The girl by the name Olette sat down next to Setzer, swinging her legs softly. Setzer had pulled out a small bottle from inside his jacket and held it up.

"This is scotch. It's not the finest scotch, but it sure does its work. You wanna have a sip?"

Isa's attention was diverted when he saw the Western girl approach Lea, who clearly feared that she would start speaking English with him, but then she spoke.

"Wuah, you sound Japanese!" Lea exclaimed with an expression that made the girl giggle, "What was your name again? Setzer said it really fast and I wasn't paying attention."

"Um, I'm Larxene."

"Larxene? That's a really weird name. I'm Lea."

"Isn't that a girl's name?"

Lea wasn't sure how to react, he looked around first to make sure that no one had heard her and he gritted his teeth while he tried to come with a comeback.

"It is not a girl's name! It's a very cool and unusual Japanese name that goes all the way back to the time of the samurai!"

"Oh." Larxene tried to hold back a smile, "My mistake then. I like what you've done with your hair. Does it stay like that naturally?" The change of topic made Lea quickly forget that he had been upset and he got into the mechanics of how he fixed his hair, although there wasn't anything scientific behind it.

Isa wasn't sure how many cans of beer he had gotten through when he heard Lea's intoxicating laugh ring in his ears and felt Lea tug on his sleeve before he dove down and stood on his arms.

"Isa, c'mon, let's show 'em that we can do ninja-moves."

"What? No. I'm all bruised up."

"C'mon, Isa! Put on a show here. Impress the ladies," Seifer said and clapped his hands loudly from where he sat. Lea stood back up and pointed at the blond girl with a smug smile.

"Pay close attention now, 'cuz this'll blow your mind."

He got onto his hands and jumped around on his arms until he lost his balance and tumbled down onto the sand with a snicker as the world spun around him. He got Isa doing the same, he didn't want to at first, but the more beer he drank the less he felt the bruising on his body from the beating the other day. It was weird how easily amused and carefree he became while drunk, not even the girl vomiting by the edge of the sidewalk bothered him enough to give it a second glance.

The sound of the police siren escaped him completely until Lea grabbed his arm and pulled him down the beach, running away and trying not to laugh. Isa turned his head and saw that the foreign girl stayed with the girl that was vomiting even though the police was getting closer. Everyone else had already left.

Despite it all, Isa could only focus on the tingling sensation in his chest when Lea held his hand as they walked down the street back home.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

Axel took another long sip from one of the bottles of sake he had bought at an off-license store back in Tokyo. He ignored the glare Saïx shot at him from the corner of his eye. They had been going all over Tokyo, clearing all the places on the list with an address in the huge metropolis. It had taken a week to find them all and search them through, but they had found nothing.

"You seemed to know your way around Ansem's labs," Axel said, tapping at the bottle he had resting on his lap. He had hoped Saïx would at least glare at him, but there was no reaction.

"How many times did you meet Ansem in Xemnas' stead? Dr. Even seemed to know enough about you to not mess around."

"What do you wanna know, Axel? If I was in charge of Ansem's experiments? I wasn't. Whatever deal Xemnas had with him, I was kept out of it."

"You can't really blame me for not believing you though."

"I don't care what you think of me. You weren't there, so you don't have any right to judge."

Axel decided to let it be, although there were a lot of things he wanted to say. It wasn't like he had been absent because he wanted to, he had been sentenced to prison for three years for a deed he hadn't committed. Saïx, if anyone, should've been aware of that.

He had been worried for Saïx during his time in jail, but once he had been released all those worries had disappeared. Saïx had become Xemnas' right-hand man and had his own posse, which Axel had been made a part of.

It had been a year since, and Axel never wanted to notice the changes in his best friend, but now he was forced to see them. He was beginning to think that maybe he had done so too late.

"Stop drinking. I can't stand you when you're drunk; and it smells."

"You can't order me around anymore," Axel mumbled and took another sip to prove his point. He took the short silence that followed as a victory.

"It wasn't meant as an order."

Axel sighed and put the bottle away slowly. He was sure that if the Ansem-thing didn't get to him, Saïx would. He would go mad going back and forth between thinking that Saïx had officially become a heartless monster without a trace of a conscience or that Saïx might have a split personality or something.

"Did Xemnas ever mention anything about Zexion?"

Saïx clenched his jaw, gripping the wheel tighter, "You swore."

"Yeah, well, you swore you wouldn't change..." Axel mumbled under his breath and turned to look out of the window on his side.

The road was surrounded by hills and mountains, the forests around them were dense and dark, even though the sun hadn't quite set yet. The fence by the highway became a blur as they passed it by and Axel couldn't quite get his eyes off it. The car sometimes cast a strange shadow on the ground, seeming like the car's shadow couldn't quite keep up with them. Axel sighed and leaned back into his seat; this was going to be a tiresome trip. They had recently come out of Tokyo, which meant that it was at least a six hour drive left to Kyoto, and his only company didn't seem to be in the mood to talk.

He reached for the radio and put it on, if anything it would be interesting to hear what radio station Arlene had set it to.

"_...weather __will __come __after __today's __news.__ Three __murders __have__ occurred __at __three__ different __hospitals __around __the __center __of__ Tokyo.__ The__ police __believe __that__ there __is __a__ connection __and __they __are__ working __hard__ on __finding__ the__ culprit.__ There's __no__ information__ on__ whether__ the__ police __has__ a __list __of __suspects __or __if __the__ victims __were __in__ any __way __connected.__ The__ Tokyo __Police__ Force __has __recently __begun __a__ close__ cooperation__ with__ American__ intelligence__ agencies.__ According __to__ our __sources __this __is__ seen__ as__ a__ perfect __opportunity __to__ put __the __cooperation __to__ test.__ This__ cooperation__ has__ caused __strong __reactions__ from__ citizens __in __Tokyo, __who __oppose__ the__ meddling __of__ American __forces, __calling __the __cooperation __imperialism __in __disguise.__ How__ the__ police__ will__-__ " _

Saïx turned off the radio and kept looking ahead. He slowed down when he saw a gas station. He drove onto the parking lot, parking the car by the only gas pump with a machine that took money in cash. While Saïx filled the tank, Axel got out of the car and stretched his arms, taking a stroll around the place.

The area around the gas pumps wasn't big. It fit ten cars at most and it was surrounded by rock and forest. The lamps flickered once Axel approached the three vending machines standing against the wall of the restroom. He leaned against it and rested his head against his arm, sighing deeply while reaching for change in his pocket. He turned his head slightly to catch a glimpse of Saïx before looking back at the vending machine. What could make him talk? Saïx didn't drink, he didn't smoke anything and it would be difficult to drug him.

"Shit..." Axel pushed one coin into the machine and focused on the sound of it falling in with the other change. The alcohol he had drunk hadn't been enough to make him relax. He pulled on the sleeves of his jumper and smashed the button pad on the vending machine with a loud slam.

"Axel."

He turned around when he heard Saïx call for him and he froze when he saw that Saïx had pulled out the gun. A thousand thoughts crossed his mind before he realized that Saïx was looking into the forest. A soft breeze blew across the parking lot and as the branches moved, Axel saw what Saïx was looking at. Someone was standing in the forest, limping towards them. It was a young woman coming out of the woods. She was whimpering and sobbing, reaching her arms out when she saw them. Saïx raised the gun, ready to shoot her if he had to while Axel tried to approach her slowly. She was hurt. Her clothes were torn and soiled with blood.

"H-help..." she sobbed.

"What happened to you?" He grabbed a hold of her when it seemed like her legs would give in, but she froze the second Axel put his hands on her, and her eyes seemed to go blank as she stopped sobbing.

"Hey!"

"Soiled doves..."

"What?"

"Axel." She looked up at him and dug her nails into his arm, "The answer lies within the true nest of the soiled doves."

She fainted the second she finished that sentence, Axel managing to catch her before she hit the ground. He laid her down gently to try and see if she was wounded or if maybe the blood on her clothes was someone else's. This girl was maybe as old as Yuna, she wasn't wearing any school uniform and it hadn't occurred to Axel to search her pockets for any identification.

"Is she dead?"

Saïx walked up behind them and tilted his head to get a look at the girl's face. It was easier to ignore Saïx's indifference when there was someone else that needed his attention. The girl had a few cuts on her arms, but she wasn't bleeding anymore. What was she doing out here? Had she been kidnapped? Abandoned? Axel cradled her up in his arms and carried her to the car.

"Axel, what are you doing? You can't take her with us."

There was that bossy tone again. Axel rolled his eyes and sat the girl in his seat, opening the door to the backseat and folding a quilt into a pillow, and putting another quilt over the seat as a sheet.

"She is not coming with us, Axel. The cops will be looking for her and I am not risking going into jail for some runaway brat."

Axel turned around violently and walked up to Saïx in a few, determinate steps, glaring him right in the eye as he took Saïx by the collar.

"I took three years for you, so you're just gonna shut up and come to terms with the situation 'cuz she's coming with us, got it? For fuck's sake, have some heart!"

He let go of Saïx with a push and went back to get the girl and put her in the backseat so that she could lay down properly. He put his hand near her mouth to make sure that she was breathing before he stood back up and placed a cover over her to keep her warm.

He hurried to the vending machines and bought water and things he imagined girls her age would eat. Saïx had already taken his place by the wheel when Axel got back into the car, He couldn't hold back a snort when he saw what Axel had brought. He got the engine going and drove back out onto the highway. Axel glanced at the girl and sighed as he turned back; it was going to be a long night. They had to stay at the next stop to get some sleep and once the girl woke up, Axel would make sure that she got back home safe and sound.

**~ooo~**

The clock was ten and they had been on the road for an hour when the girl in the backseat began to toss about, her eyes fluttering open at the feel of the warm sunlight coming in through the window as well as the chilly breeze. Axel turned around to check up on her, he didn't want her to freak out. She sat up quickly when she realized that she was in someone's car, looking around, trying to figure out where the hell she was, but there were very few landmarks out here by all the mountains.

"Easy," Axel said as calmly as he could, "We found you at a parking lot by a gas station. I'm Axel and that's Saïx. We just want to help you get back home. What's your name?"

The girl brushed her brown hair behind her ear and put the cover around her tightly when she felt a shiver run down her spine with the feel of the wind.

"Kairi."

"Kairi. Nice to meet you." Axel tried to ease up the tension with a smile, but the girl just kept looking at him intently, "Where do you live, Kairi? And how did you get here?"

She looked out the window and then back at Axel with a sad expression, "From the sea." She paused, "That's all I can remember. I was put out on the sea to get here."

"Don't you live in a city somewhere near here?" Axel was puzzled. They were miles inland and high up on these hills by the mountains. Even if there were rivers around here it would be impossible for someone to survive all the way here from the sea. He didn't even have a map to show Kairi.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Where're your mom and dad?"

"Dead."

Axel turned to face forward and sighed. He had taken water over his head this time. They would have no choice but to take her with them. Axel was sure that Saïx would oppose that; they would dump her by the road right now if he had any say in it. That was probably what he was thinking about right now. There was no denying that the girl might be better off by herself, but Axel didn't want to be the one to tell her that she had yet to catch a break.

"You hungry?" Axel reached for the paper bag he had put all the food in and decided to pick up the nut mix, it seemed healthy enough. He reached it to Kairi, but she shook her head.

"I'm allergic to nuts."

"That's a weird thing to remember."

Axel gave Saïx a quick glare before he put the nuts back into the paper bag and searched for something else. He turned back around and smiled at Kairi, "Gummibears?" He moved the plastic bag with the gummibears around until she took it. It was probably not the healthiest breakfast but it would keep her blood sugar up until she got a proper breakfast.

Saïx parked in front of the gas station and turned off the engine with a small sigh. Axel opened the door on his side, "Come with me." He gave Saïx a meaningful look before stepping out of the car. "We'll get you some new clothes to wear, you want anything else?"

Kairi shook her head and smiled weakly as Axel slammed the door shut. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky and a cold breeze blew through the parking lot. Axel waited for Saïx to walk ahead. The color of his eyes matched the sky and they were as chilling as the wind.

The store was crammed with stuff; food, magazines, clothes, sweets, tobacco – everything to be able to compete with the vending machines outside. There were big posters on the wall advertising the homemade apple juice they sold at this place. The vendor had put the small bottles of apple juice by the cashier. He seemed happy when he saw that he had costumers.

Axel greeted the man by the cashier with a small nod and tried not to be bothered when Saïx didn't even look in his direction. The man's polite smile faltered soon enough when Saïx picked up one of the local newspapers and flipped through it calmly.

"We'll pay for that."

Axel hurried to the shelves with T-shirts and shorts. He didn't have the time to stop and think about what to choose, he took one of each size available while Saïx helped himself to a chocolate bar.

"You can't do that, sir. You must pay for it before you eat it."

"Oh?"

Saïx walked up to the man by the cashier, reaching his hand out to push down the glass ornaments onto the floor.

"I don't take orders from lowlifes like you." He looked at the man's nametag, "Mr. Sakamoto."

"I-I don't want any trouble, sir."

"Maybe you should've thought of that before you opened your big mouth." He smiled at Mr. Sakamoto and took a bottle of apple juice. Mr. Sakamoto stood paralyzed as he watched Saïx take a sip and look at him sardonically, like he knew that he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it.

Saïx wrinkled his nose and spit out the juice on the floor with a disgusted sound at the back of his throat. "You really shouldn't charge for this, Mr. Sakamoto. It tastes like piss."

He turned the bottle upside down over Mr. Sakamoto's head with a polite smile. Axel's hand pushing his arm away didn't come as a surprise at all.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" The question came as a low hiss, as if Mr. Sakamoto had yet to find out about what was going on. Saïx pulled out of Axel's grip with a cluck of his tongue. He turned around to walk out and he took two more chocolate bars on his way out and waved his hand.

"Nice to have met you, Mr. Sakamoto."

Axel pulled out a couple of bills from his pockets as he looked after Saïx, he couldn't hang about in the store so he put a few thousand yen on the counter and bowed his head quickly, murmuring an apology before hurrying out to the parking lot.

Saïx stood leaning against the car, pretending to enjoy his surroundings while eating what was left of the chocolate bar. Axel opened the door to the backseat and gave Kairi the clothes he had bought, "Not sure which one will fit, so choose whichever makes you comfortable. We'll be outside standing guard."

Axel didn't wait for Kairi to answer; he slammed the door shut and glared at Saïx from his side of the car.

"You wanna tell me what the fuck that was about?"

"Not really."

"Damn it, Saïx! You agreed to cooperate, remember? This is not cooperating. You're fucking everything up!"

"Am I now? How were you going to break into places and fight off our brothers with a brat on our necks? You gonna welcome her to the family? Teach her how to shoot, maybe?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead yet."

"Well, that's the problem with you, Axel. You don't think. If you'd done a bit of thinking we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Alright, sure, be mad at me if that's what you think, but this has nothing to do with that man in there, or with the three nurses or doctors or whatever the hell they were."

"They were in my way. When there's something in my way, I get rid of it."

"Since when?"

"Since it was required of me."

Axel clenched his fists. It was a good thing the car was in between or he would be rearranging Saïx's face right about now.

"Would you get rid of me if I was in your way?"

"I wish I could."

That may be the most sincere thing Axel had heard Saïx say in quite some time. He turned around and leaned against the car and crossed his arms. The words echoed in his ears and he tried to focus on the silver lining; at least Saïx didn't have it in him to kill Axel.

Kairi stepped out of the car and left the door open to lean on it. She had changed into a baggy T-shirt and shorts that came to her knees.

"I –"

She looked at Saïx and bit on her lower lip gently when he got into the car and slammed the door shut. She sighed and looked at Axel in hope to get his attention. "I won't be a burden." Axel turned on his head to look at her. "I think I know where I should go."

Kairi lifted her left leg and pointed at her ankle where she had a small tattoo. Axel got closer to see what it said, the kanji were small, but readable and he understood enough of it to make out what it said.

"It's an address in Kyoto. Have you been there before?"

"I don't know. Maybe." She watched Axel give a slow nod and look back down at the pavement, "Is he mad at me?"

"He's mad in general." Axel sighed, "Don't sweat it. Whatever he does or says, it's got nothing to do with you. Just ignore him. Let's get you home."

He opened the door and jumped into the car. Kairi hurried back in too, glancing at Saïx as he got the car going. How did someone become so bitter she wondered as her attention slowly diverted to Axel who had decided to look out the window on his side to avoid looking at Saïx.


	7. Cryptic Clue

******Title:****** Last Train****  
><strong>Author:<strong> ****nikki_ntm****  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ****Shattered Apocalypse****  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ****7/20****  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** Drama/Adventure/Suspense  
><strong>Rating: <strong>M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.****  
><strong>Characters:<strong>**** Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).****  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.****  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ****Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N:** I hope you're enjoying this story. I just want to thank you for your support! Comments and reviews are like always much appreciated.

Happy New Year, everyone!

x

**Chapter 7: Cryptic Clue**

It was difficult to know if it was very early or just really late, not that time mattered in this small bar in one of Kabuki-cho's many alleyways. The air was stuffed with cigarette smoke and the smell of spilled alcohol. Marluxia sat on one of the stools by the bar and looked down into the small bowl of nuts intently while his new assigned partner circulated around the manager.

"I-it's all I know. I swear. C'mon. I would never lie to you. Never."

The manager was of middle-age, although he didn't dress like it. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that had been white once upon a time and he wore a bandanna to keep his thick, black hair out of his face while he tended to the bar.

Marluxia looked up again with a bored look on his face. This wasn't half as fun as it would have been if his protégé had been here to do the dirty work.

"Good God, man. Leave him with a couple of teeth, what else can he possibly know?"

Xaldin stood back and eyed the man he had nearly beaten into a pulp. Not his best work, but he had to admit that Marluxia had a point.

"Well, this was a waste of time then. We have no names on either people or places."

"The man Saïx talked to is a regular. We just have to wait him out. When does he come by?" Marluxia turned to the tied up manager, the bowl in his hands.

"Uh, around seven."

"He must work nearby. Why don't you pour us a drink, manager? My throat's all dried up."

The manager nodded and watched them both walk past him. He squirmed and spit out some of the blood in his mouth. Marluxia sat down on one of the comfy armchairs, watching Xaldin do the same.

"You should untie the manager, Xaldin. If you hadn't scared my protégé away, I could've made him do it."

Once the manager had been untied and served the drinks Marluxia had ordered, the two yakuza members sat and waited patiently for the man Saïx had been talking to. Xaldin wasn't much of a talker, and if his drink was anything to go by, he wasn't much of a drinker either. Xemnas sure knew how to find boring people to surround himself with; this family craved a new leader, Marluxia thought.

"So, Xaldin, while we wait for the mysterious informant, how is it that Xemnas suddenly decided that you would make a good working partner for me?"

"You're treading on thin ice, Marluxia. You weren't supposed to meddle into this Saïx-business."

"Why not? I'm a member of the family. I was concerned for the integrity of our boss. I knew that it wasn't wise trusting Saïx as the second in command."

Xaldin snorted, "Skip the act. Our orders are strict. We have to bring Saïx back _alive. _Same goes for Axel, although I think you can beat him up a little. You don't think straight with so much pent up anger, and jealousy makes you do things that could get you in trouble."

"I'm not jealous."

"Good to have cleared that out. I'm guessing that we won't be looking for Larxene anymore then?" Xaldin seemed proud with himself when Marluxia said nothing and clutched the glass in his hand, glaring back at him.

"Why is it such a big deal that Saïx is gone? Xemnas has all three senior bosses on this and he's refusing to give the post as the second in command to someone else, even though he knows very well that we need to be as strong as we can be during these times. The other families are talking, Xaldin. We're gonna lose our control in congress if Saïx's desertion becomes public knowledge and if Xemnas comes off as weak."

"What do you suggest, Marluxia?" Xaldin leaned back in his chair, propping his elbow on the high armrest, "Xemnas' orders are definite, and yours aren't. We know that Xemnas would never jeopardize the wellbeing of our family. That is why we have sworn our allegiance to him."

"You don't know why you're doing this, do you? You're just here to keep an eye on me and obey the boss just like any other dog would. I can offer you freedom, Xaldin."

"Saïx and Axel are coming with us alive, Larxene is off the map, and you will do as you're told. No one in this family owes you any explanations. It is what it is, Marluxia. If I ever need to draw the conclusion that you are straying from our mission, I'll put an end to you."

A cough averted their attention. The manager stood by their table, and as soon as they looked at him, he turned to motion towards the entrance, where a scrawny old man stood, having no other choice but to come in, thanks to Xaldin's men who stood guard by the door.

"Bring him over," Marluxia said and watched the manager urge Dr. Even to their table.

**~ooo~**

"I spy with my little eye something..." Kairi looked out the road ahead of the car as they slowed down at the red lights, "Light blue!"

Axel took a handful of gummibears and hummed as he tried to spot something of the color. Saïx wasn't even paying attention to them anymore. They had been playing I Spy for the last two hours. It had gotten boring really fast, but at least Kairi was talking, and Axel didn't want the tension in the car to affect the girl when it had nothing to do with her.

"If you're thinking of the sky again, we're through playing this game," Axel said, his mouth full of gummibears. He turned his head slightly to see Kairi hold back a giggle as she shook her head. "Right. Something light blue. The officer in that corner over there."

"That's not something, Axel. I would've said someone if I meant a person." Kairi leaned against Axel's seat, "It's something you can eat."

"That's light blue?"

"Yeah, light blue. If you look a bit harder, you'll see it."

"Ah! There it is! It's that ice cream. Wow, look at that. I thought they had gone out of business." Axel turned in his seat as they passed by a small shop selling the light blue ice cream he had eaten when he had been a kid.

"It's sea-salt ice cream. There's a shop where I live that sells lots of sea-salt ice cream. It's really cheap too." Kairi sat back in her own seat and bit at her lower lip gently when Saïx glared at her.

Axel sighed and turned his attention to the surroundings. So this was Kyoto. The old imperial capital of Japan, the center of Japanese culture, and quite the tourist trap if the large tourist buses they occasionally saw were anything to go by. The city seemed rather peaceful in daylight, although that might have had something to do with not being in the unofficial, modern red light district of Kyoto.

They drove past the large gates of Shimabara, where people were walking by, stopping to read the large sign outside and learn about its history. It was strange to see old and new so close together. There were concrete buildings next to traditional Japanese houses in wood, old shrines next to small shops and people going about their business like it was nothing.

Saïx parked the car in a small car park. The address that Kairi had tattooed on her ankle should have been around here somewhere. They all stepped outside, slamming the doors shut. Kairi stretched her arms, looking around while Axel made sure that the doors were locked.

"You recognize anything?"

"Um." Kairi rested her hands onto her hips and tried to find anything that would make her remember the place she might have called home, "Not really. Maybe if we walk down that way?"

No sooner had she turned to look down the road she had chosen that she saw a familiar face look back at her. It was an old lady, dressed in a wide purple dress with white spots, and carrying a bag of groceries. The old woman hesitated and squinted to make sure that her faulty eye-sight wasn't playing tricks on her before she hurried towards Kairi with her hand over her heart.

"Ohmaa?"

Axel watched confused as the older lady embraced Kairi and mumbled things that couldn't possibly be Japanese. He strained his ears to catch anything that could offer some explanation as to why they were being so tearful, other than that they both knew each other.

"What are they saying?"

"How should I know?"

As soon as both Kairi and the old lady had composed themselves, Kairi led the old lady to Axel and Saïx with a smile so bright it was hard to imagine how shy she had been just the day before.

"This is my mother. Not by blood, but she's been taking care of me since I got here. She's the only mother I've known." Kairi squeezed her hand and leaned her head against the old woman's shoulder.

"Did that memory just hit you?" Saïx crossed his arms and made Kairi look away quickly.

"Ma'am, it's nice to meet you. We found Kairi at a gas station. The shock must've made her forget where she lived, but fortunately she had a tattoo with an address and all, which brought us here. I – you speak Japanese, don't you?"

The older woman smiled and bowed her head, "Yes, I do. I'm grateful that you've brought my child back to me. I was worried sick, wondering where she had gone off to; she never goes anywhere without telling me first. Please, let me invite you for dinner. It's the least I can do for you both."

"I'm not one to turn down a homemade meal."

"Great!" Kairi beamed, "Let's hurry home and start with dinner. I'm starving."

"That's 'cuz you said no to everything but the gummibears." Axel quickly added. He didn't want Kairi's mother to think that they hadn't had the courtesy to give Kairi anything to eat. "It's the truth. It was either the gummibears or the sea-salt ice cream we saw on the way here, which reminds me; Kairi, I need to see the little shop of sea-salt ice cream you mentioned earlier."

The old woman laughed, "We do have some of that ice cream at home. I always make sure to stock up since Kairi likes them so much, although it doesn't seem to be a very popular flavor, from what I've noticed."

"It's an acquired taste," Axel agreed. He reached for the bag Kairi's mother was carrying, "Here, let me take that. It looks heavy."

"Oh, thank you. I don't think I've introduced myself. My name is Su-mi."

"I'm Axel and the guy behind us is Saïx. He doesn't say much."

"Is he shy?" Su-mi asked curiously and Axel smiled at her as politely as he could.

"Yeah, sure. Let's call it that."

Kairi's home hadn't been that far away from where they had parked the car. It had been about a fifteen minutes' walk from there and it was a very cozy. It was two stories high and big enough for two people to live there fulltime. The strange thing was that the bedrooms and the only bathroom were downstairs while the kitchen and the living room/dining room were upstairs.

Su-mi and Kairi were cleaning up the table and serving the dessert in the kitchen while Axel and Saïx stayed put by the low table.

"This shôchû was great. It's not an expensive one, is it?" Axel asked and reached for the bottle to look at it closer.

"It's not shôchû," Su-mi called from the kitchen, "It's soju from Korea."

"It sure tasted like shôchû," Axel mumbled, sniffing the mouth of the bottle while trying to find the similarities that were obviously there. He turned to Saïx with a wide smile, "Mind to pour up for me?"

Saïx only glared at him.

"How long are you going to be like this?" Axel asked in a low voice, putting the bottle back onto the table.

"Like what?" Saïx asked back with an uninterested look on his face.

"Like an asshole. If you're mad at me, fine, but at least come out and say so. Get it all out of your system so that we can at least share a meal in peace."

"We did eat in peace. I was quiet, I didn't bother anyone -"

"It's not about you being quiet or not, it's about you giving out these vibes that are making everyone uncomfortable. These people were kind enough to invite us into their home, feed us, and make us company. You could at least try to seem interested."

"But I'm not." Saïx leaned in closer, his voice becoming more heated, "I'm not interested in these people or what they can do for us. I'm not sure if you recall this, but we've been screwed over by Ansem and we have a little less than four months to figure out what the hell it is he wants with us, all the while our brothers are out there, hunting us down to put a couple of bullets in our heads. We don't have time to play house, Axel. We've been in Kyoto for _hours _and we haven't even begun to search for the places we need to find."

"Would you like some more soju, Axel? I have a lot more, but I usually don't offer my guest more than a shared bottle since not many can hold their liquor these days."

Saïx sat back when Su-mi walked in and served them their desserts. The dessert didn't look like anything Axel had eaten before. Su-mi had called it _Pavlova_ – a dessert made out of meringue, whipped cream, strawberries and sliced bananas.

"Is that a challenge, Su-mi? No one can hold their liquor like I can, I have an iron stomach."

Kairi walked in, amused by what she was hearing, "Axel, I don't recommend what you're doing. Mom is the current champion of the one-shot contest at the local pub."

"Yeah? But I'm the number one champion of everywhere when it comes to shots, so bring it!"

Su-mi smiled mischievously and tapped her finger against her chin as she pondered about it for a few moments, "Well, if you think that you're up for it, I'll take on the challenge. The one to drink most shots of soju wins and gets to eat the rest of the cake for breakfast. How's that?"

"That is a deal. I love cake in the morning," Axel said with a grin. He took a mouthful of the Pavlova on his plate and was surprised by how soft and sweet it was. Su-mi turned to Saïx and rested her hands on her hips.

"How about you, Saïx? Are you in on the competition?" She had been trying to include Saïx into the conversation the entire time they had been sitting by the table and Axel was hoping that Saïx would ease up and stop being such a buzzkill.

"I don't drink."

"Ever?" Su-mi asked surprised.

"Someone's gotta be the responsible adult, no?" Axel laughed and was relieved when Su-mi shrugged and went back into the kitchen to fetch some more soju for the competition.

"Stop making excuses for me," Saïx snapped in a low hiss, but Axel ignored him and sighed tiredly while looking at Kairi, hoping that she wouldn't take Saïx's unbearable attitude to heart.

Su-mi quickly came back, holding a bottle triumphantly, "This is your last chance to retreat, Axel. I won't be merciful once the competition has started. What do you say?"

"I say, stop yappin' and let's get this show on the road." Axel held his cup up high and with both hands, earning a chuckle from Su-mi and Kairi.

"Consider yourself warned," Su-mi said, opening the bottle and pouring the soju into Axel's glass as she sat down by the table. Axel poured her a cup before they both decided to do a quick toast.

"May the best one win," Axel said.

"Gan bae!"

**~ooo~**

Axel tossed and turned in the squeaky fold-out bed when he tried to fight against the sleep that had such a tight grip of him, not wanting to let go until he had finished the nightmare that was currently torturing him. The cold hands against his exposed arm were what brought him back, and he sat up in the bed with a gasp. He was still dizzy and his mouth felt dry.

"Wow, you're a heavy sleeper," Kairi said in a whisper, "I've been calling you for five minutes. Are you hungover?"

Axel rubbed his eyes and shook his head slightly.

"Did you have a fight with Saïx?"

"What? No. No, I didn't. Why?" Axel's voice was still heavy with sleep, but he was reluctant to lie down again.

"Oh. Um, he left a while ago. I thought it was because you had a fight or something."

"He left?" Axel felt suddenly awake and he hurried out of bed, "Where? Where did he go?"

"I don't know, he didn't say. I just heard someone walking around, and when the door closed, I looked out and saw Saïx walk away." Kairi watched Axel pace around the room, as if he was searching for something he couldn't quite remember the name of, "Did he take something?"

"The car keys." Axel stopped to run his fingers through his hair in an attempt to not scream out loud, "He had the fucking car keys. Shit. When did he leave?"

"Twenty, maybe thirty minutes ago?"

"Shit!"

"But if he had taken the car, I would've heard it. No one is out at this time. All the cars from the main road can be heard from here, but the only sound that I heard was when he closed the door."

"Are you sure? 'Cuz I don't think he stepped outside to see if the ice cream shop was open." Axel was sure his head was going to explode. He quickly looked through his pockets to make sure that the little yellow book Arlene had given him was left and once he found it he was reminded that Saïx had the note Dr. Even had written.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. I can't even blink without him finding ways to screw me over," Axel mumbled as he put his shoes on, "I have to find him. If I don't, I'm screwed. He has the list, the car keys, and the money." Saïx had probably even taken the gun, Axel added as a mental note.

"Where are you going to look? Kyoto isn't a small town, y'know and if he has money then he could have taken a cab or a bus."

"Yes, Kairi, I know, okay? You're not helping, you're just adding to the panic."

"Sorry."

"He must've known where he was going and figured that it was close enough to not take the car. But where? Kairi, don't you have a map somewhere?"

"Before I woke you, you were mumbling in your sleep," Kairi said and put her cover tighter around herself, "Maybe that's what he heard and set out to find it."

"Find what?"

"The soiled doves," she said, "Don't you remember? You kept repeating it in your sleep. You had to find the nest of the soiled doves, you said. I thought that the soju really had done you in, but maybe it's of importance?"

Axel gulped, "I said that? I had to find the nest of the soiled doves?"

Kairi nodded as she yawned widely and rubbed her eyes, "It doesn't make much sense to me either."

"Kairi, don't you remember?"

"What?"

"That's what you said to me when we found you at the gas station. You told me to find the true nest of the soiled doves. You have to know what it means."

"But I don't remember being at any gas station, Axel. And I don't know what the message means. Maybe you dreamt that I said it, maybe that was why you kept repeating it. The cups you and mom were drinking out of have doves flying to their nest painted on them. I thought that you had gotten it from there."

"Where did you buy the cups?" Axel looked at Kairi intently from where he stood and held his breath, "Kairi, c'mon, you have to remember this. It might be the only lead."

"Um..." Kairi began, "It was a set. Mom bought them because it was one of the few that came in seven. She bought them the first time she took me out on a sightseeing of Kyoto. We were in Shimabara."

Axel reached for his cap and put it on, turning to Kairi before he left, "Kairi, stay here. I have to go and get Saïx. I'm not sure if we'll come back, but I'll try. At least to give you and your mom a proper goodbye."

"I wanna go with you!" Kairi frowned as Axel walked to the front door.

"No, you have to stay here, Kairi. Take care, okay? No more fishy trips to the middle of nowhere." Axel smiled at her and hurried out of the house. He was running down the street as fast as he could, feeling the burning taste of the soju at the back of his throat. The night was still and the streets were empty.

The true nest of the soiled doves. It made sense now, he felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner, but at least he knew where to look for Saïx. He ran past the car park and saw that the car was still there. There was a sickening feeling in his gut and he sincerely hoped that it was the soju and nothing else.

He didn't stop for a break until he stood in front of the large, red gates that marked the entrance to Shimabara; the home of the prostitutes and outcasts of old Kyoto; the nest of the soiled doves.


	8. The Buried Dog

******Title:****** Last Train****  
><strong>Author:<strong> ****nikki_ntm****  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ****Shattered Apocalypse****  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ****8/20****  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** Drama/Adventure/Suspense  
><strong>Rating: <strong>M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.****  
><strong>Characters:<strong>**** Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).****  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.****  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ****Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x  
><strong>

**Chapter 8: The Buried Dog**

The old wood squeaked underneath his weight as he tried to navigate down the long hallway without being noticed. This building hadn't been difficult to find – it was one of the few rundown buildings that had been under renovation for three years. The facade of the building had been covered with plastic sheets and a not so discreet sign saying "Keep out!"

The air was heavy with the smell of rotting wood and dead birds. Axel came to the end of the corridor and pulled aside the paper-door to his left gently, and he sighed when he saw that it only led to another corridor that was even darker than the one he had just walked through.

He felt the floor shake slightly as he stepped into the corridor and he gulped, looking around to see if there was anything else moving.

"That better not be an earthquake," he mumbled and stepped over some debris.

"Axel."

He froze at the sound of that serene voice, slowly reaching for a thick stick that lay on the floor. He had seen enough of her in his nightmares, he wasn't going to let her haunt him in real life as well.

"What do you want?"

Silence. Axel gripped the stick tighter and looked around, squinting to see better in the darkness that surrounded him. He continued to walk down the corridor, fumbling in search for another door.

"You're lost, Axel."

"Shut up, you wench."

He pulled aside the first door he found, but he had to use both hands since it seemed to be jammed. The door only opened halfway, enough for Axel to squeeze through. He was surprised to see a candle lit on the desk by the right corner of the room.

"Hello?"

He approached the desk slowly, looking around before roaming through the papers that lay everywhere. There had to be a map of the house somewhere, considering the maze of corridors out there. He stopped when he saw a small yellow notebook that looked very much alike the one in his pouch.

"What the hell?" The only name on the front of the notebook was the Roman number "VII". He flipped through it and saw that there was something written on every page of the book. It had been someone's diary.

_Entry #12 _

_The subject is responding well to the treatment. It's been a week since we started treatment and no side-effects have been reported. The subject is quickly adapting to its new life-situation. We will be able to start with the second phase of the treatment shortly. _

_Entry #15_

_There has been a set-back. The subject had its first signs of rejection today at 15:43. Phase two has been aborted until further notice. The subject will be put in isolation to hinder further damage. _

Axel tried to find a name somewhere in the book, but there was none. He put it in his pouch and tried to find anything else that could be of importance. "C'mon, c'mon – give me something."

He nearly yelped when something fell from one of the shelves by the jammed door. He turned around quickly and realized that he had forgotten the stick outside. If anything decided to pop out now he would be defenseless. He picked up the candle and directed the light to where he had heard the drop. It was a dark VHS-tape. He hadn't seen those in years.

"Was that you, wench?"

He approached the VHS-tape and took it quickly, "You don't happen to have a VCR to go with this, do ya?"

He chuckled to himself and turned back to the desk, pulling out the drawers to see if he had missed anything. It was then he heard the sound of white noise coming from within the wall to his left. He ran his hands across the wall and knocked on it until he found a breach. He pushed on it and it popped open, revealing a small room in the back where an old television was blaring.

"Uh, I will need at least ten million yen to see this through. For emotional scarring and stuff..." Axel looked around in hopes that maybe he'd find a pile of money, randomly laying around.

"Figures, when I really need something."

Axel put the VHS in the VCR and stood back while the image settled. On screen he could see a man fiddle with the camera, coming up close as he cleansed the lens with the hem of his lab coat. He stood back, and there, by a white table in an equally white room, was a woman dressed in hospital clothing, looking out into nothing. The look in her eyes was distant and resigned.

"_How are you feeling today?"_

The man that had been fiddling with the camera was not visible, but his voice was dark and powerful. The woman didn't say anything, it didn't seem like she had heard him.

"_It's important for you to tell me how you're feeling. It's not healthy for you to be all alone in that dark room all day. You need to re-connect with humans. What would you like to do today? You have hobbies, don't you? Can you tell me what those are?"_

"_Let me out of here!"_

Axel flinched when the calm woman suddenly slammed her hands onto the table and yelled at the man in the lab coat, her eyes suddenly flared with anger and resentment.

"_Calm down. It's not good for you to be agitated in your condition. You don't have to do anything today if you prefer to rest, but you can't be keeping this up for much longer. Are you hungry? You haven't eaten breakfast yet. Would you like something special?"_

"_Please. Stop doing this. Let me go. I can't -" _

The woman's voice faltered and she took a deep breath to hide a sob. Axel clenched his fist as he saw the woman look away from the man that was holding her captive while trying to avoid looking into the camera.

"_I'm not the one you think I am. I don't know you…"_

"_That's because you're sick. I'll make you better."_

A tear ran down the woman's face as she realized that this man wasn't going to see the truth and that she might be beyond rescuing now. Or maybe, she caved under the thought of being mad.

She gave a slow and tired nod.

"_I want to sleep. I'm tired."_

The image started to flicker and slowly became nothing but white noise as the image changed into something else. Axel gulped when he recognized the surroundings. The camera seemed to have been set off by accident, it was on a desk judging by the angle and he could see the lower half of two men in suits standing in front of it.

"_Don't do this, Master. I can save her. I know that I can! I have already gotten the funds for it; all I need is access to the laboratory."_

"_No! I've seen the experiments that have been going on there. You've done more than searching for ways to rescue her! Only God knows what other things have taken place in there! I'm doing this to help people, not to murder them!"_

"_I'm not murdering them, Master. I'm so close to finding the cure for her, you can't take that away from me!"_

"_It's not ethical. I won't allow it."_

"_It could work on your daughter."_

The man in charge went silent and was clearly thinking about the offer. A moment later the image started to flicker again and Axel hurried to the television, hitting the top of it to make the flickering stop.

"No, c'mon. Give me names! Places! Who's the girl? Who was in charge? What were they doing to her, damn it!"

The last thing he could see was the two men shaking hands and then the VCR made a sound, rewinding the tape as the TV continued to blare.

"Piece of shit. What was the point of that?" Axel stood up and looked around the room, in case the so called wench was in there. He lifted his cap to run his fingers through his hair, "Useless. Absolutely useless. Now I have more questions than answers. Is that what's going to happen to us if we don't figure out what Ansem wanted? We'll be locked in some mental institution with some guy asking us how we're feeling? 'Cuz I'm okay with that. Beats going across Japan, sleeping in a car and never getting any proper meals. At least the girl could choose what to eat for break –"

The girl he had only been seeing in his nightmare appeared in the corner of the room, looking so out of place in this run-down room. She stared at him intently and suddenly flickered.

"Who's doing this?" Axel backed away from the television slowly to put more space between himself and the hologram. She remained silent and followed him with a glare. "Why did you show me that?"

"Saïx."

Axel paled and felt the palms of his hands get all sweaty as his heart skipped a beat, "What?"

She smiled and suddenly disappeared, leaving Axel alone in the room with the blaring television. He dried off his hands against the front of his shirt and took a deep, shaky breath.

"Fucking shit!" He kicked a broken stool against the wall. "Is he a part of this? Is that what you're trying to tell me? Is that why you keep showing me that nightmare? I just – I don't know. What do you want me to do?"

Axel sank to the dirty floor, holding his hands over his face as he tried to collect his thoughts to figure this out. All of this had done nothing but confuse him more. He knew he had no evidence that Saïx had been behind all of this; and yet it wouldn't surprise him if he was. If that was the case he had to make sure Saïx brought him to whatever lab that woman was being held captive to get her out of there and then torch the place to put an end to whatever crap was going on there.

There was a shuffle from outside the room and a low growl. Axel stood back up and stood against a wall when he saw a shadow in the other room. There was someone outside, and judging by the shadow it had to be a person. He heard that growl again, but this time it came closer. Axel wrinkled his nose at the sudden stench of burnt meat and fought against the curiosity that almost had him leaning out to see what it was that was out there.

It wasn't until everything was silent again that Axel dared to move. He leaned out slowly to make sure that it was clear, but he drew a gasp at what he saw. A man stood there, looking down at the floor, bleeding heavily from his decomposing body. He turned his head at the sound of Axel's gasp and revealed his eyes in golden amber and the hole in his chest from where he was still bleeding. It was also from there that the stench of burnt meat came, and Axel stepped back as the man stumbled forward.

"What the hell happened to you, man?"

The answer was a guttural shriek that sounded anything but human.

**~ooo~**

Marluxia wasn't as gentle with the tying up as Axel had been, Saïx discovered. His fingers were starting to tingle from how tight his hands were tied and it seemed futile to try to get out of it. The chair squeaked when he tried to move his arms and rub his wrists together.

"Feeling uncomfortable, boss?" Marluxia tossed aside the apple core and moved away from the wall he had leaned against.

Saïx looked away with an annoyed expression on his face. Marluxia's smug smile wasn't doing much for him; he was only waiting for Xaldin to come back into the room so that he could talk him into releasing him.

"You've been causing quite a hassle. The boss has been out of himself with worry for you. Surely, that must mean something to an ignominious bastard like yourself. It awakens one question though, and I'm hoping that you can answer it for me; _why_ would the boss care, Saïx?"

"Why shouldn't he? I'm the second in command."

Marluxia walked around Saïx with slow steps, digging his heel into the poor wooden floor with each step, and crossing his arms when he realized that Saïx wasn't going to make this easy.

"You're not second in command anymore, Saïx. You betrayed the family. There is no reason for you to deny that anymore. We have two brothers ready to testify for your desertion, which is why I can only draw the one conclusion that the boss wants to kill you himself."

"You wouldn't keep me here if that's what you believed, Marluxia. Xemnas hasn't assigned my job to anyone else, which makes me second in command, and it is driving you insane not to know why I can get away with this and still keep the spot you've been fighting for so long." Saïx watched Marluxia tense while keeping his pace. Marluxia looked away as his shoulders shook with the laughter he had held back.

"Saïx, Saïx, Saïx. You are perched so high upon your horse that you've lost all resemblance of perspective. I wouldn't talk so proudly of my rank if I had taken it the way you did." He grinned and walked up closer to Saïx. "You think that anyone buys Axel's bogus confession? _Everyone_ in the family knows that you killed Zexion. You waited until he had the back to you to strike, didn't you? And then you made Axel take the blame and oh, the tragedy that unfolded after that – and yet, who became second in command? Who nestled his way into the boss' life after Zexion was gone?"

Marluxia seemed amused by the fact that Saïx looked away. He took a step back and sighed loudly.

"Where did you leave Axel? You told Xigbar that leaving the family had been his idea."

"He is my subordinate; neither you nor Xemnas will have any use of him."

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, Saïx. He is of use to us, he is probably more of use to us than you are because Axel has a lot of weak spots, and he sure is fun to poke at, wouldn't you agree?"

"I'm sorry to be the one to burst your bubble. I killed Axel about a week ago; I dumped his body in a ditch alongside the Hanyô Expressway. He's probably burning in hell as we speak."

Saïx looked up at Marluxia, a small smile playing on his lips. He was rendered speechless and for a moment there was no sound but the blowing of the wind outside. Marluxia stood back as if he had to think about what to do next, he was losing his leverage and he would have to get Saïx back to Kobe soon, or so Saïx thought.

Xaldin came back through the door, but he was rolling in a big barrel that was oozing smelly slime. Saïx wasn't sure why, but his heart started to beat faster and he felt a sweat break out. The rope around his wrists seemed to grow tighter around him and his shoulders began to ache when he tried to pull out of its grip.

"Xaldin, untie me. I'll go with you willingly."

He felt a sudden tightness in his chest and it was getting harder to breathe. Xaldin looked at Marluxia and then at Saïx with a dark expression. He didn't seem sure what to do with the barrel, but he was sure that Marluxia would tell him about it soon.

"You always did underestimate me, Saïx. But you see, I cannot not know. I knew that you would be less than cooperative if I asked you about certain things that you might feel uneasy sharing with me, and I thought to myself; where can I possibly find the mighty Saïx's weak spots? I won't say that it was easy, but by the looks of it, it was certainly worth it. Are you feeling trapped yet? It's about to get much better if you don't decide to tell me all about Xemnas' dependence on you." Marluxia smiled widely and took in the sight of the slightest glimpse of horror in Saïx's eyes.

"I don't like being lied to," he continued, "Did you really kill Axel?"

"Would you miss him if he was gone?"

"Don't mess with me, Saïx. I'm the one with leverage here. I'll drench you in that rotten fish if that's what it takes to get answers out of you." He raised his clenched fist and Saïx waited for the punch to his face, but it never came. The sound of fingers cracking echoed in the nearly empty room, and there was a pained grunt coming from Marluxia when Saïx looked up to see that Xaldin stopped the man from punching him. Xaldin forced him to back as he walked in between them both.

"You better tell me what you're doing now, Marluxia. I already told you about Xemnas' orders, you're just a pawn in this game and I'll do you in if I have to."

"It's the only way we'll make him talk. You have to trust me, Xaldin. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the trust of our leader. We'll take him back to headquarters unharmed, but we'll be left with the knowledge of what's going on. It'll get you back on track with your agenda, like we agreed."

Xaldin gripped Marluxia's fist tighter, glaring at him for few seconds before deciding what to do. He stood back and let Marluxia go reluctantly.

"What are you doing, Xaldin? Don't let him manipulate you. Xemnas will reward you if you bring me back." Saïx's voice faltered when Xaldin walked back to the barrel and put it up.

"Where do you want me to put this, Marluxia?"

"There's a small room in the back – over there." Marluxia nodded in the direction of where he wanted the barrel, "I think we can make it more comfortable for our dear boss in there."

The old wooden floor squeaked as Xaldin rolled the barrel towards the room Marluxia had spoken of. The weight of the barrel was nothing for his large built, and he disappeared into the backroom fairly quickly. Saïx tried to pull on the rope as hard as he could, ignoring the burn he was causing on his wrists. He didn't even think of looking at Marluxia and give him the pleasure of seeing him in a struggle when he suddenly heard a thump.

He looked up and saw that Marluxia had fallen to the floor, seemingly unconscious.

"What are you doing here?" Saïx was surprised to see Axel walk out from the shadows and hurry up to him. He untied Saïx as fast as he could, glimpsing at the other room where he knew Marluxia's partner was.

"Who's the wing-man?" Axel asked in a whisper as he pulled on the second rope around Saïx's wrists.

"Xaldin."

"Really? Xaldin? That's great. Just my luck. Isn't Lex with them too?"

"Hey!"

Xaldin ran out of the backroom and took a quick glimpse at Marluxia on the floor, who was knocked out cold, and then at Axel and Saïx. He reached for the gun underneath his vest, his violet eyes flaring dangerously.

"No, Xaldin. C'mon. There's no need for guns. Think of all the times I've had your back, you can't just ignore that, can ya?"

Axel gulped at the wicked grin on Xaldin's face and tried to usher Saïx back when Xaldin pulled out his gun and unsecured it.

"Who are you trying to fool, Axel? You've never had anyone's back but your own."

"Yeah, well. It was worth a shot. Tell you what I'll do to not be left hanging as a liar. You might want to turn around and use those bullets more wisely right about...now!"

A loud shriek came from the monster Axel had encountered earlier. Its distorted face was enough to throw Xaldin out of loop, and no sooner had the monster taken a step into the room before Xaldin took aim and shot at it twice in the head.

"Let's get outta here."

Axel grabbed Saïx's by the arm and pulled him out the same way he had gotten in. They ran down a long porch that was nearly taken over by the tall grass on the overgrown garden. The shrieks of the monster and Xaldin's gunshots became more distant as Axel pulled aside a paper-door and forced Saïx in after him. He reached for a thick board that was just long enough to be put between the closed door and the wall.

"That'll keep 'em busy for a few seconds," Axel said and started to move down the corridor, grabbing Saïx by the arm again. He stopped when he realized that Saïx was pulling back, finally pulling free when Axel turned around.

"Where are we going?"

"What do you mean? We have to get out of here. Did you miss the freak with a hole through his chest and decaying face? Oh, and the psychopath is here with the bulky giant, who now wants me more dead than before much thanks to the aforementioned monster."

"We can't leave. We have to find the answer that was supposed to be here."

"Saïx, there are no answers. Just mindfuck by the dozen."

"There's a door that leads to the basement. We have to find a way to get downstairs first, there should be at least four ways down so we don't have to go back. There has to be one around here somewhere."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do."

Saïx was going to walk past Axel to find a room or a door that could lead downstairs when Axel stopped him and pushed him back.

"That's not good enough. Tell me how you know all of this. I can't go on thinking that you're screwing me over. I can fight off our brothers, I can break a couple of laws, and I can even try to outrun a zombie if I have to, but I can't be dealing with thoughts of you betraying me, Saïx."

"Stop thinking that I will then."

He tried to push through but Axel kept him back and frowned, "You make it very difficult not to. I found this notebook. It has your signature number on it, and if I'm not entirely mistaken this is your handwriting as well."

Axel held the little yellow notebook against Saïx chest and tried to find a trace of emotion on his friend's face, but he just took the notebook and flipped through it calmly.

"I haven't seen this before." He reached it back to Axel, "It doesn't seem to make much sense either. There are no mentions of who did what to whom. It's useless."

Axel was still not satisfied. He looked into Saïx's eyes with determination, hoping to see the slightest proof of honesty in them or anything that could suffocate this uneasy feeling he got each time Saïx said something he knew was a lie.

They both tensed up when they heard shuffling from the other side of the corridor. It couldn't be the monster that was keeping Xaldin busy, and Axel didn't want to think that there were more of them out there.

They could see the shadow of it through the paper-door and it stopped suddenly, crouching over the floor while it made broken noises at the back of its throat. Saïx quickly held his hand over his nose as that burning stench of rotting meat made it through the thin paper-door.

"Follow me."

Saïx hurried down the corridor before Axel barely had the time to react, which left him with no other choice but to follow Saïx into the small room he disappeared into.

"What are you -?"

"Help me with this." Saïx knelt down and started to pull on one of the tatami squares.

They could hear the monster grunt on the other side; it hadn't moved. It was like it was trying to figure out how to get the door open, and that almost human care for the old building was only disturbing.

The tatami square was really heavy. Both Axel and Saïx struggled to put it onto the floor as quietly as possible to not provoke the monster outside. In the tatami square's stead was a dark hole, and Axel couldn't help feeling that sense of betrayal again when Saïx fumbled around with his legs down into the darkness until he found the inbuilt ladder.

Once on solid ground again, Axel had expected some kind of cave with humid walls, burning torches and the insistent sound of droplets falling into small pools of water, but there was none of that. It was only darkness all around. He tried to get his eyes used to it by blinking a couple of times and straining his sight. He heard Saïx walk ahead, the sound of his sneakers against the floor made it obvious that it was tiled and nothing like the cave Axel had imagined it to be.

"How are we going to see -?"

The fluorescent lights on the ceiling started to quiver above Axel, flickering down the corridor as Saïx walked further in. He had reached his arms out and ran his hands across the clinically white walls, making it seem like the corridor was responding to his presence by the touch.

Axel followed slowly, looking around to see if there were any doors or windows to look out of, but the corridor ended soon and revealed a small room, everything just as white as the corridor. That sick feeling Axel had been fighting back returned and made his gut flip.

In the room there was a white table with two chairs across from each other and by that table stood a tripod for a camera, just like the one Axel had seen in that video.


	9. Once Upon A Time

**Title:** Last Train  
><strong>Author:<strong> nikki_ntm  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> Shattered Apocalypse  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> 9/20  
><strong>Genre<strong>: Drama/Adventure/Suspense  
><strong>Rating:<strong> M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.  
><strong>Setting:<strong> Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**Warnings for this chapter: **Character death (not major, off-screen), pottymouth!Axel

**x  
><strong>

**Chapter 9: Once Upon a Time**

**~ooo~**

**May, 2001**

**~ooo~**

The front door creaked when Isa pushed it open. It was a heavy metal door that his mother had installed after a burglar tried to break in, despite it making the small apartment more of a jail cell than it already was. He had been thinking of replacing it with a normal door once he could afford it, preferably before his mother came back from the hospital.

"Finally." Lea sighed and got out of his shoes and loosened his tie. He put the bag of groceries on the counter by the small kitchen right by the entrance and hurried up to Isa's bed, where he threw himself with a loud thump. "I never knew Fujin's mother would be as talkative as she was. Fujin must've been adopted or something."

Isa walked up to the mirror in his mother's room that was separated from the rest of the house with a thin paper-door. He was dressed in his best clothes. It was a suit that he had grown out of since he last wore it. The sleeves were too short on the blazer and so were the pants, but he was sure no one had noticed at the funeral.

He still couldn't assimilate that they had gone to Fujin's funeral. What was worse was that he couldn't believe that she had a family like any other of them. Her mother had been devastated and it wasn't until she showed her face that Isa recognized her as one of the women at the fishery. Fujin's father had been there as well. He hadn't said anything, but he had seemed heartbroken. After the cleansing ceremony, he had gone to sit by her while the mother had attended the reception.

"She must've loved her a lot. You think that she knew what Fujin was dealing with?"

Lea snorted, "Are you serious? Of course she must've known. Fujin spent all her time with Seifer, even if Fujin hadn't told her, someone else must have. They did a good job hiding the bullet wounds, though. I thought it would be a closed casket, or that her face would be all distorted or something."

"Do they know who shot her?" Isa pulled off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt to put a T-shirt on. Fujin had been shot on an open street on her way to one of Seifer's meetings, Isa knew that much. He figured it had to be a concurring gang that had seen their chance to start something with Seifer's gang and that's why Fujin had been shot. It was a tragic way to go, but it was a risk they took being involved with criminal organizations.

Lea was silent for a while. He sat up in bed to look at Isa through the mirror. Isa had already changed into his sweatpants as well and he turned around when he saw Lea's worried face.

"You'll have to stay away from Seifer for a while."

"Why?" Typical of Lea to change the subject when he didn't want to say things his beloved gang was involved in. Isa walked to the kitchen and started to unpack the groceries Lea had bought on their way back.

"Promise me that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

"Sure."

"No, Isa. Seriously, you cannot tell a living soul what I'm about to tell you. If anyone gets to know that I'm spilling my guts to someone outside of the family I'm gonna be screwed, and you will too. Promise me, cross your heart, that you won't tell anyone anything."

"Yes, I promise. Jeez. Who could I tell?" Isa sighed and started to prepare for the curry he had promised Lea earlier.

"He holds you responsible for Fujin's death." Lea was looking at him like he expected Isa to faint or something, but Isa simply scratched the back of his neck and seemed more annoyed than anything.

"I fail to see his logic. How could anyone think that I would have anything to do with Fujin's death? I don't have a gang, no weapons, no car, no money to buy gas for the car – and I can't find the cutting board."

"This isn't a laughing matter, Isa. He's seriously pissed at you."

"He didn't seem that pissed at the funeral."

"Out of respect for Fujin's family."

"Oh? So he does know about respect? Who knew?"

"Isa," Lea sighed. He seemed genuinely worried and angry that Isa wasn't taking him seriously when he was obviously trying to look out for him. Isa knew that he meant well, but it did annoy him when Lea thought that his gang was all powerful and could make people disappear by just wishing it, and he was annoyed that Seifer always found an excuse to bring Isa into whatever it was he was doing or was responsible for.

"Yeah, okay. I'll be careful and stay out of Seifer's way. I still don't understand how he can make that connection though."

"You know how he's been nagging you to join? Well, at first it was all him, he wanted to get on the boss' good side and all that, but now it seems like the boss is on him to get you on board."

"What? Why?" Isa put down the knife he had taken out and turned around to see that Lea had walked up to him and taken off his blazer, rolling up his sleeves.

"I don't know. Seifer was given an ultimatum. Get you to sign up or someone close to him was going to get it."

Isa gulped, "Are you sure?"

"That's what I've been hearing. It's nothing official, but I would stay away from Seifer if I were you. Just to be on the safe side. He's no fun pissed."

"You're not getting in trouble for being here with me, are you?" Isa knew that Lea liked going against authority even if he himself had chosen it, and it worried him sometimes that Lea didn't know what he was getting himself into.

"Hell if I knew. I didn't get the memo to avoid you, so they can't be holding me responsible for it, right? Besides, no memo in the world could keep me away when you're making curry."

"You know, for someone who just came from a friend's funeral, you're awfully happy."

"Okay, first of all, I barely knew her. Second of all, I am grieving, but it's a deep and complicated process that takes place deep down, which means that it won't be visible for all to see. Third of all, I'm getting a home cooked meal, I cannot be sad when warm food is coming my way, which reminds me, did you put the _mochi_ in the freezer?"

Isa smiled and started to chop the onions, "I did."

"Good. I'll start chopping the carrots."

"Don't chop them in huge chunks."

"I never chop them in huge chunks." Lea took out four carrots and washed them.

"You cut them in half and put them into the pot last time, Lea!" Isa laughed and gave him a shove. "Mom thought you were one of those slow kids and forbid me to let you near the kitchen again."

"Your mom always thinks so highly of me, doesn't she?" Lea grinned, "How is she, by the way? Isn't it time for her to come home soon?"

Isa's mother had been at the hospital for two weeks. The doctor said that it was just a measure of precaution and that he wanted to keep her under observation to make sure that she didn't have any more of her coughing fits, or that it at least didn't get to the point to where she passed out coughing. She had been getting worse during the past year and sometimes Isa feared the worst, but she had seemed better when he went to visit her.

"I don't know. The doctor says that it's best for her to stay at the hospital until the cough goes away. She might have caught a bad cold and that may be why she's coughing like that. I prefer that she stays there, to be honest. I didn't get much sleep the nights before she got to the hospital and I know that she'll be taken care of properly there."

"Won't it be expensive?" Lea frowned a bit. The hospital Isa's mother was at was advertised as a free-clinic, although that was just the first consult. Anything that wasn't a question was charged for and it was quite expensive for people around here who didn't have proper health insurance.

"We'll manage. I've gotten our boss Wada to give me extra hours on weekends and with the scholarship I'll be able to get by."

Lea gave a slow nod. The national entrance exam for all appliers to university was a month away and Isa had been studying like crazy, but Lea still doubted that he could catch up on everything he had missed since ending elementary school. He didn't have the heart to say that to him, the hope of getting that scholarship was what was keeping Isa afloat in midst of all this misery and hope suited Isa, Lea had decided.

"If you ever need help with the hospital bill or anything around here…"

"Lea, I know." Isa cut in, "We'll manage. Honest."

"Alright," Lea smiled at him and held up the cutting board with properly chopped carrots, "How proud are you of me right now, on a scale from one to ten?"

"For that, a solid ten."

"Yeah? Can I be trusted with the eggplant as well?"

"Absolutely." Isa handed him the eggplant. He put the onions into the pot and stirred around for a bit as the oil sizzled when it made contact with the onion.

"I have a date tomorrow night."

"Does your right hand know about it yet?"

"Ouf." Lea laughed, "That's the crudest thing you've said this month! Merciless. Your mother would've found a way to blame me for that."

"Who's the lucky girl?"

"The same from my last date. The girl from the beach."

"What was her name?"

"Larxene."

"Oh, right. The foreigner. How come you two met again? Is she part of the gang?"

"Well, yes and no. She ran away from home and Seifer gave her a job at the hostess club down at the harbor. She doesn't like the job but she says that it pays her bills. The place is packed with obnoxious costumers who completely ignore the rules that are set up right on the front door. It's disgusting." Lea shuddered, "Anyway, she's free tomorrow night, so we're going on a date."

"From the ashes into the fire," Isa mumbled and put in the rest of the vegetables into the pot.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I can't imagine anyone more obnoxious than you."

Lea smiled, "At least I'm not a costumer."

"I'm not sure that's to your advantage."

"Oh, it's on." Lea put the knife down and tickled Isa. He followed him when Isa tried to get away by running around the small table by the kitchen, but without luck. He fell onto the floor and tried to kick Lea away, but the kicks didn't come as forceful as he was hoping since he was laughing so hard.

"Lea! Stop it! The curry is going to burn if I don't keep stirring!"

"Alright, for the sake of the curry, I'll let you go." Lea grinned and sat back. Isa sat up slowly, holding Lea's hands back as he stood up. He let them go and hurried to the stove, mumbling under his breath.

"Aren't you going to help out with the rest of the vegetables?"

Lea got up on his feet and stretched his arms, "Of course I will. I just have to borrow some of your clothes; mom said she'd throw me out to the sea if I ruined this suit." He reached into his pockets and put his cell phone, keys and wallet on the dining table before he walked into Isa's room and started to look for something to wear.

"Isn't your birthday coming up soon?" Lea said from Isa's mother's room. Isa shook his head and smiled, to think that Lea could be so vain even when it came to wearing clothes no one but Isa was going to see him wear.

"Yeah."

Lea had recently celebrated his 17th birthday. Seifer had thrown him a surprise party at one of the clubs his boss owned. Isa had only heard of it, he wasn't one to end up on Seifer's guest list. At least Lea had been happy with it, why wouldn't he have been? His "family" had been there and given him a birthday party many could only dream of.

"I don't mean to spoil the surprise or anything, but don't plan anything for that day, okay?"

"I won't."

Lea's cell phone suddenly vibrated on the table. Isa hurried to it to see if someone was calling, maybe Lea's mother, wondering where Lea was at this hour of the day. Lea rarely told her where he went or when he was coming home. It wasn't her business, he said. But Isa didn't want her to worry, not when he could help it at least.

He flipped the cell phone open and saw that Lea had at least fourteen missed calls and two text messages. All of them were from Seifer. Isa stood perfectly still for a moment to hear if Lea was coming back into the kitchen and as he waited, he pushed the button to read the last message.

_Where the hell are you at, Lea? Are you with that faggot boyfriend of yours? Whatever the fuck you're doing, leave it and come on over here. The gang's gathering._

"In one more year you'll be able to drink legally." Lea sighed as he walked back in. Isa had put the cell phone back the way it was and he turned around just as Lea stopped by the doorway to stretch again, "Man, I feel all sore from all that sitting down at the funeral."

Isa smiled at him quickly. Lea was keeping things from him, it was a part of their relationship now and Isa didn't blame him. He understood why Lea would want to keep him away the family stuff, it wasn't his business and what happened within the family stayed within the family.

Despite the fact that what Lea was doing, ignoring Seifer's orders for one, was dangerous, Isa felt strangely happy and victorious that Lea had chosen to spend time with him instead of going to that meeting.

The hours passed by quickly and in doing the curry, eating it and watching old movies on VHS it was almost three in the morning when Lea decided that it might be time to get going or his mother would be seriously pissed. He sat up on Isa's bed and rubbed his eyes while yawning.

"I gotta go. I have a big day today, can't ruin it by looking like a demon."

Isa got up as well and followed Lea to the door nervously. If they had taken Fujin out as easily as they did, there was nothing to stop them from doing the same to Lea. He grabbed Lea's arm when he reached for the doorknob.

"Stay." How did he follow up on this without sounding like a complete idiot? "It's late and... you've practically already slept over now so you might as well stay for breakfast. Get some sleep. And stuff."

Lea grinned and threw his arm around Isa's shoulder to squeeze him in close, "Are you scared of the ghost from the movie?"

"It wasn't a ghost." Isa sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Of course it was! She was transparent and walked through walls and no one but the main character could see her."

"Because the so called ghost was the main character."

Lea laughed at the defeated look on Isa's face and walked back into the small apartment, dragging Isa along with him. Lea might have literally dodged a bullet by staying here, and Isa was glad that he could keep him safe, even if he couldn't keep him locked up here forever, he could at least be at hand whenever Lea needed him.

**~ooo~**

The fishery stunk during night. The insides of the fish they had cleansed during the day were stored in big barrels and stood there for an entire day before they were taken away by men from a special garbage disposal company. It worried Isa that Lea would want to meet up here this late at night. That girl might have grown tired of him already, or maybe Lea had gotten so drunk that he couldn't get himself home.

"Lea?"

Isa walked inside and squinted to get a proper look. He held his hand over his nose to not have to smell this rotten stench. It burned in his eyes already.

"Lea? Are you okay?"

He felt something pop underneath his shoe and he stepped away to see what it was. It had been a fish-eye. It lay splattered over the floor and Isa dragged his shoe on the floor to get rid of any goo he had left under his shoe.

Lea better be in trouble now that he had called Isa all the way out here. He was half-way inside the room when he heard the door slam shut. Isa turned around quickly and gulped. The street-lamps outside the small fishery lit up parts of the room and Isa hoped that Lea would jump out any minute now. There was a click from the door followed by the muffled sound of two voices.

Isa hurried up to the door and tried to pull it open, "Hello? Lea, is that you?" He banged on the door and glared at the barrel right by it with a disgruntled look.

"Man, c'mon, I think you're taking this too far, y'know."

"Shut up! I'm doing this for you! For Fujin!"

That wasn't Lea's voice, "Seifer? Seifer, open the door."

"Sorry, Isa. No can do. Our boss has his eyes set on you, and what he wants, he gets. You've practically joined, haven't you? Why not make it official?"

"No!"

Seifer kicked the door hard, "Then you'll have to fucking stay in there until you change your mind, you selfish bastard! You think you can become someone? You think that you're better than us? Fuck you!"

"...Seifer." Isa could hear Raijin's voice. He tried the door again although it was obviously futile.

"Damn it, Seifer! It wasn't my fault! You can't do this."

Fujin's death had been hard on all of them. Isa hadn't known her well, but he did know that she didn't deserve to be shot on an open street by some random gangster. Lea's warning the other night rung in his ears and he tried to come up with a solution that didn't involve him pledging an oath to some gangster.

He fumbled for his cell phone and moved away from the door to not have to stand so close to the leaking barrel. Lea was the only one who could help him now.

"Pick up..." The signals went by until it reached voice mail. Isa hung up and tried again and again.

"Changed your mind yet?" Seifer laughed and sighed loudly, "Or are you trying to get Lea to save you _again_? You worthless piece of shit. How long are you gonna have him do the dirty work for ya, huh? Why not grow a pair and stand up for yourself, take some goddamn responsibility."

"Pick up, Lea..."

His breath got caught in his throat when he suddenly heard Lea's familiar ringtone come through the door. He hung up and the cell phone outside stopped ringing. This was a set-up. Isa's thoughts were racing as he tried to remember the number to Lea's other cell phone, the old one, but the insisting stench made it difficult to concentrate.

"You're not that important to him. Not anymore. He has a family now. You could become part of it if you only stopped being delusional. You seriously think you're gonna get that scholarship?"

Isa froze. He could only imagine the smug look on Seifer's face right now. How long had he known?

"How do I know that?" He asked around a laugh, "Well, Lea likes to share." He walked away from the door and paced around the room behind the locked door, "We know what you're up to, Isa. There are powerful people who're not okay with your decisions. You're going to that old man's classes at the library, aren't you?"

There was a sudden sound coming from the air conditioning system and with it came warm air into the room.

"He happens to be my boss' tutor as well, and you're getting in his way." He chuckled, "I know that you think that you're smarter than us, Isa. You piss me off."

"Seifer, let me out!" Isa tried to push the door open again as the warm air made the rotting process go faster. The barrels started to leak more and the liquids ran down a small drain that was out of function during the night to save power.

"Join us."

Isa shook his head and kept on pulling on door, holding his breath. He didn't want to, he knew that he could do better. He believed that he had found a way out of the pitiful life his origins had forced him into.

"Seifer! Open the door!" It didn't help holding his breath, it didn't help holding for his nose. The stench was thick and overpowering; there was no escaping it when it got warmer in the room. His eyes stung and he held his hand over his mouth when smell threatened to make him vomit. "Please... Seifer. Open the door."

"You could've saved her. If you just had joined us when I asked you to, she would still be alive." Seifer reached for the doorknob and turned it slowly, "If it was up to me, I'd let you rot in there, Isa."

Isa couldn't hold down the urge to vomit anymore. The stench became too much and he turned away from the door when the bile pushed up from his gut.

"I wouldn't mind having the boss mad at me for getting rid of you. I don't really think you'd mind either, but what about your mother, Isa? Who will take care of her if I end your life here? You can help her if you join us. Money won't be a problem anymore."

Isa leaned against one of the conveyor belts, his body shaky and his eyes were filled with tears at the lingering feeling of being suffocated by his own vomit. He looked around frantically. There were windows at the upper half of the wall facing the harbor outside, if he could get up there, he could crawl on the roof and jump down on the other side.

He walked up to the barrel by the door, shuddering when he put his hands on it to help himself up on it. This was the only way up onto the wide windowsill. It was difficult to see in the dark, but Isa had to take his time to see where it was safe to climb up. A fall from here wasn't lethal but it would hurt and could injure him.

His weight pushed down the lid and squished out more of the smelly liquid. Isa reached out for anything to climb up onto the windowsill and tried not to take too deep a breath. He managed to grab a hinge, but it wasn't well attached to the wall and it fell off immediately when Isa hung from it. He fell with a loud thump, tilting one of the barrels that stood by the wall.

"You're not trying to escape, are you, Isa?"

Isa tried to hold back a sob when he stood back up, his entire side soaked in the liquids from the tilted barrel. He felt the back of his head pound, almost like it was about to split into two. The room was spinning, but he hurried back to the barrel by the door to climb on it. He managed to grab a hold of another, more firm, hinge on the wall and he pushed himself high enough to reach the windowsill. Seifer must have turned up the heat even more, it was getting warmer and that in combination with the stench of rotting fish was starting to numb Isa's brain.

He ran his fingers down the sides of the first window he got to and tried to find something that would make it open. It was getting harder to breathe – maybe it was the stench, maybe it was the frustration and fear. Isa clawed against the window that wouldn't open. The windowsill wasn't wide enough for him to sit back and break with his feet, and it didn't seem to be safe at all to break the window open with his bare hands.

"Seifer, you can't keep him in there any longer. If it smells like this here – we have to open the door."

"He knows what he's gotta do."

Isa was starting to feel heavy. He stood up and held himself against the window to not trip and fall back onto the rests of fish down below. He crashed against the window until it broke under his weight. He tumbled out on the tilting roof outside; the force with which he had gotten out made him unable to stop while there was still roof underneath his feet. Isa wasn't sure how long the fall was down onto the concrete floor from the window; he sort of lost all notion of time while he was airborne.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~  
><strong>

The grass out on the small garden was as green as it could ever get. A gentle breeze blew in from the sea and the big oak outside the fence cast well needed shadow over the porch where Arlene had set the table for tea. Old music from the thirties was playing in the background and her guest tapped his foot in rhythm with the music as he reached for his cup of tea.

The neighbors had been slightly surprised by the man's appearance; one woman even came by to ask Arlene if she needed any help and told her to give her a call if there was anything she need. Arlene had closed the door after the woman, unsure how to deal with the warmth spreading in her chest, knowing that her neighbors were keeping an eye out for her.

"You sure have a good thing going here, princess."

Xigbar looked at her with his one good eye and reached for a cookie from the plate Arlene put on the table before taking a seat next to him.

"It won't be going that good if the family insists on popping in unannounced."

Xigbar had gotten older over the years. His gray hairs were increasing and she was sure that there were a lot more wrinkles on his face than before.

"So it's okay for me to pop by if I call first?" Xigbar took a bite of the cookie in his hand, "Mmm, this is really good. Where'd you buy it? I should take a few with me as souvenirs."

"I baked them." Arlene reached for her cup and sipped on her tea. There was no point in rushing Xigbar; he would stay as long as he felt it was necessary. He might not even have any agenda other than to bother her.

"As if!" Xigbar chuckled, "You can't even boil water, princess. C'mon, how am I supposed to trust you if you can't even be honest with me about the frickin' cookies?"

"Always with the compliments," Arlene sighed. She leaned against the back of her comfy garden chair and closed her eyes briefly. The music, the breeze, the warmth and the shiny day out in her garden was liberating. Leon was on his way home and the dinner was in the oven. Not even the family could ruin her good mood today.

"I'm not going to take much of your time. I'm here on an unofficial visit so to speak."

"How'd you find me?"

"Princess, c'mon. It's me. Of course I'd find you." Xigbar smiled proudly and reached his arms out, "The day you outsmart me is the day I put my gun on the shelf and call it a day."

"That's a great point of reference, grandpa." Arlene smiled and tried to hold in a laugh at Xigbar's ridiculously smug look.

"I'm sayin'," Xigbar sighed, his smile suddenly stern and not as carefree anymore. This was probably where the serious business began. "I need to know if Axel came by here, princess."

"Xigbar, no – I don't want to do this..." Arlene got up from her chair, a weight suddenly settling on her chest, but Xigbar grabbed her by her wrist and kept her from going. His grip wasn't tight or painful, it was gentle and enough to keep Arlene there. He led her back and she sat down with a thump, looking away from Xigbar.

"I know that this is a touchy subject, which is why I decided to come here and talk to you about it. You know that Xemnas is losing it. You know that, don't ya?"

"Yes."

"Right. We don't need a Xemnas who's out of his rocker. You know that, I know that, hell, even Xemnas knows that. I also know that you don't have any obligations with us anymore, and I want you to know that I respect that. I really do, princess. But I can't say the same for the rest of the family and Marluxia is out there. He is dead-set on finding you, on finding Axel and off Saïx if he gets the chance. That's why I'm gonna ask again, did Axel come by here?"

Arlene looked down onto her lap where she had clasped her hands together, "Yes, he did. He was here."

"Was Saïx with him?"

Arlene nodded slowly, "Axel was marked."

"Yeah, I saw that right before he knocked me out. He's got a mean right hook." Xigbar stopped to clear his throat when Arlene kept gazing down on the floor. "How did Saïx look? Was he doing well?"

"Well enough to want to kill me."

"As if. You would've given him a run for his money, right, princess?" He paused again, "We have to get him to the facility before anything really bad happens. Promise me you'll keep an eye out for me?"

Arlene nodded slowly.

"Man, oh, man. If Saïx goes any longer period of time without proper supervision, it'll all be lost." Xigbar sighed as he looked out at the garden with a slight frown on his face.

"I thought that he was finally escaping. That maybe he hadn't lied to me about getting away from the family, but Saïx is there like always, pulling him back in. If only he had escaped with me that night..."

"You know that we would've killed him. You were bargaining power, princess. All in all, things turned out for the best."

The silence between them stretched as the music continued to play in the background as a reminder of a past long gone. It was a past that could easily be glorified when thought back on in times like these. Xigbar hadn't been that different back then, not with Arlene at least. He had been younger of course, his hair had been all black, there had been no notable scars on his face and that patch over his eye had not even been thought of plausible.

He had been quite a ladies' man with a security job at Ansem's mansion and life had been good. Whenever Ansem was out of the house and Arlene stayed at home with the help, Xigbar would have this music playing in the background as he showed his latest conquest around in the exquisite house.

"We have to get on with it. This is the legacy of your father."

"Don't remind me of him. It just pisses me off," Arlene mumbled from behind her hands.

"See, that I can deal with. C'mon, cheer up, princess!" Xigbar nudged Arlene gently and tried to make her look at him. "Let bygones be bygones. Axel wasn't for you. I mean, look at you now! You're doing fine without Axel, without the family – this is where you oughta be. Where would you be today if things hadn't gone the way they had? I'll tell ya where, princess. In the gutter. And that's nowhere to be for a lady like yourself."

"I'm home!" Leon's voice came from the hallway and they could hear the door shut as Leon stepped out of his shoes and put his plastic bag on the floor.

"Enter Prince Charming number two."

Arlene looked up again and smiled softly, "Don't call him that. He'll get jealous and an inflated ego at the same time." She got up and walked across the living room and out to the hallway to greet Leon.

"Why is the neighbor next door standing guard outside with a shovel?" Leon asked, perplexed, while putting his arms around Arlene, swaying gently together with her to the rhythm of the music.

"I don't know."

"No matter where you go there's always a nutter, isn't there?" Leon sighed and rested his head against Arlene's absentmindedly, "I invited Rinoa and Zell for dinner..."

"You did?" Arlene tried not to sound bothered by it and hoped that Leon hadn't noticed.

"Yeah, they were just gonna freshen up a bit."

Rinoa had found a job as a secretary over at the boating company that owned the workshop in which Leon worked at. Arlene didn't like to think of herself as the jealous girlfriend, and she had tried to get along with Rinoa when Leon had introduced her, but it had felt forced from the get-go. They were too different to have anything to talk about outside of Leon's company and Arlene didn't like it all that Rinoa had the opportunity to spend so much time with him when Arlene wasn't around.

"Great." Arlene smiled, "Actually, I have a guest too. My uncle decided to pop in for a quick visit but I convinced him to stay for dinner. He's out in the backyard right now."

She was just about to turn around to see if she could see Xigbar from where she stood when Xigbar showed up behind her with a real charmer smile on his face. Leon clearly tried to hide his shock at seeing this scarred old man, dressed in a tailored-suit, the kind he had only seen on commercials and TV-dramas.

"Ah, you must be Leon." Xigbar reached out his hand to shake Leon's in a firm grip. Leon nodded, unsure whether to bow and shake his hand or just shake his hand. "My niece cannot shut up about you. I seriously thought you were made up for a while, and yet here you are."

"Leon, this is my uncle Braig." Arlene elbowed Xigbar discreetly in order for him to let go of Leon's hand.

"There will be other guests for dinner, I hear. It'll be nice to meet some of Arlene's friends."

Xigbar walked back out to the porch where he sat down gently, crossing his legs as he turned to face the garden. Arlene tried to hold back a loud sigh, she said that she didn't want to have the family in her life and yet she was inviting Xigbar into it just because she was having a fit. It seemed to have worked though. Leon looked slightly paler. Arlene figured that it couldn't hurt their relationship if Leon knew that there was an uncle out there who could beat him up if it ever crossed his mind to cheat.

Yeah. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Not by a long shot.

**~ooo~**

Axel was shaking his leg impatiently, watching Saïx walk back and forth in the room. This room was white, like the other rooms they had been in, but this was clearly a room where experiments had been done. There were test tubes, chemicals, syringes, weird looking machines with way too many buttons. Axel wasn't sure what it was Saïx was doing – was he searching for something or was he making something new altogether?

"Hey, let's get outta here. This place is giving me the creeps."

Saïx stopped, his back to Axel while he looked at his own reflection in the impeccable wall. He was humming something. Axel had first thought that maybe he was actually saying something, but he didn't dare to ask him to repeat himself, so he had just played along, until he started to make out what it was he was singing.

It didn't make any sense. 'First thing in the afternoon, while taking a walk, I saw an armadillo, did it die in miserable circumstances, I wonder?' It was that over and over again, and then he stopped once he found what he was searching for. A safe.

"Saïx, c'mon, let's get going. You're acting weird and I think there might be something in the air – the monster can come down here and we have absolutely nothing to defend us with. Saïx!"

"_Gogo ichi ni sanpo shinagara, kyuuyo wo mita, kyuushi wo shita no ka?_"

"Seriously, Saïx, if you don't come with me now I'll punch you out." Axel got out of his seat and walked up to Saïx as he repeated the song again and started to push the buttons on the safe. The safe bleeped and the screen on it lit up with a green light.

Axel wasn't sure how big the safe was, it was built into one of the walls of the room and all there was to it was a button pad with no indication as to how big the door was even.

"Release the demons."

"What?" Axel grabbed Saïx by his arm and stopped him from opening the safe. "What's in there?" He demanded, his grip growing tighter as he stared Saïx right in the eye.

"...but don't scratch the wall."

A cold sensation crept over Axel and it quickly turned into goose bumps on his skin. The room turned red and there was suddenly a deafening sound that came from above. It ripped through the walls of this underground hospital and surely echoed all throughout Kyoto mercilessly.

"A siren," Axel breathed, "Why – Saïx, why did that siren go off?"

"I – I don't know."

Axel pushed him up against the wall and shook him, "You don't know? Fuck, Saïx! Tell me what the fuck is going on right now or I'll fucking make sure you won't be able to know anything! I'm fucking sick and tired of being led behind the light! You've been walking around here like you're in your fucking backyard and there are fucking _monsters_ – _monsters, _for fuck's sake! - roaming around this place and you don't even batter an eye! I just saw a man with his fucking heart ripped out attacking Xaldin! With my own two eyes! I am scared shitless, Saïx! And then you go all fucking apeshit crazy on me, humming the weirdest shit I've ever heard and then all of a fucking sudden the sirens go off?"

"Get off me!" Saïx pushed Axel away as hard as he could and moved away from the wall, "It could be a warning for an earthquake, have you thought of that? Why did you even bother to bring me here, away from the family, if you have absolutely no faith in me?"

"I don't even fucking know anymore. I must've been out of my fucking mind." Axel walked after Saïx even though he tried to get away until he finally managed to grab him again, "But I do know that you're stuck with me, whether you like it or not, got it?"

They both stopped for a moment, when other sounds became apparent over the diminishing sound of the foreboding sirens. Screams. There were screams coming from outside, but they couldn't distinguish what kind of screams they were before the sirens went off again and drenched out all the other sounds that could possibly be heard from down here.

"That better not be people screaming."

"What else would it be?" Saïx snapped and pulled away, "The sirens for an earthquake just went off in the middle of the night."

"How come we don't feel the ground move, huh? I'm sure that something in here set those off and I'm going to find out why."

He walked past Saïx with a push and hurried through the rooms until he got to the corridor. The red lights intensified and flickered slightly when he stopped by the doorway.

"Don't go out there, Axel."

Saïx's voice trembled and Axel gulped as he remained still. There was no way that he had just heard Saïx voice tremble.

"Why?"

"The demons are out. We're safer in here than in any other place."

"What does that mean, Saïx? What demons are out?"

"We had to let them out. They were scratching the wall and there's no telling what might have happened if they had gotten through. It was either them or us."

Axel turned around slowly, his hands clenched into fists, "What demons?"

It felt worse than a nightmare being here; it wasn't even surreal, just painstakingly real. Saïx looked back at him with the exact same expression as before; calm and collected. He didn't look like he was as scared as he had led Axel to believe.

"You can't go out there."

"Did you release more of those freaks out there? Saïx... did you?"

"They were scratching the wall, Axel!"

"What fucking wall?" Axel ran his fingers through his hair and let out an exasperated groan. "What went on in this place? Is this where Ansem got to experiment on people? Are those freaks out there experiments gone wrong? We still got time so that shouldn't be the punishment for not figuring him out. This is something else."

"I created them." Saïx said finally, "I created those demons."


	10. The Dark Side of The Moon

**Title:** Last Train**  
>Author: <strong>nikki_ntm**  
>Beta reader: <strong>Shattered Apocalypse**  
>Chapters: <strong>10/20**  
>Genre: <strong>Drama/Adventure/Suspense**  
>Rating:<strong> M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**  
>Characters:<strong> Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**  
>Pairings: <strong>Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**  
>Setting: <strong>Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N:** I'm slightly late with this update, that's because this week has been hectic as all hell. Oh well, here it is, chapter 10. This chapter is a bit on the angsty side, just so you all know. Enjoy!

**Chapter 10: The Dark Side of the Moon**

**~ooo~**

**July, 2001**

**~ooo~**

The hospital walls in the waiting hall were yellow, thanks to the cigarette smoke they had absorbed during the years prior to the smoke-free hospitals reform. There were a couple of persons sitting there with indifferent looks on their faces while waiting for their doctor.

Isa hurried up to the counter, his fist clenched tightly around the notice he had read once he had gotten home. The nurse sitting there had to only take one look at him to know who he was here for. She got up and bowed her head briefly, the pity in her eyes only managed to infuriate Isa even more.

"Isa, I was expecting you."

Dr. Akihara was followed by the nurse that had gone to get him. She went back to her place by the computer, while Dr. Akihara walked up to Isa. He took one quick look at Isa's bruises to decide that maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to speak to him in private.

"What the hell is this?" Isa pushed the notice against the doctor's chest. Dr. Akihara unfolded it and read it quickly with a sigh. Of course he knew what it was; he had been the one to send it. It was a medical bill.

"I don't have that kind of money. You know that full well, doctor. I pay you whenever I can, don't I? Mom needs to be attended here, I can't be at home and take care of her and work at the same time!"

"You're late with three payments, Isa. I can only do so much before the board-members see that there is money missing. We can't keep using expensive medicine and equipment on your mother without getting paid. I'm risking my job here."

Isa took a deep breath and tried to push away the growing frustration that was building up in his chest, making it harder to breathe. "It says that the payment is due at the end of this week. I need more time than that."

The doctor put his glasses on and inspected the medical bill again. "Well, Isa. If you pay half by the end of the week, I'm sure I can convince my bosses to let your mother stay here. You have 'til Sunday morning. You can pay the rest by the end of the month, but that's your last chance, Isa. I can't do much more for you. You need to be more responsible. Your mother is counting on you. You can't be roaming around and getting into fights." He gave the bill back to Isa and took his glasses off, smiling that polite smile of his to indicate that their conversation was soon to be over.

"You have to work hard, Isa. Hard work will get you far. Have a good day." The doctor bowed to both Isa and the nurse and left to attend to whatever it was he did when he didn't have patients.

Isa stepped outside with his cell phone in his hand and he stared at it for a few seconds in doubt. Hard work, huh? Before he knew it, he had the phone to his ear, waiting for a certain someone to pick up on the other side of the line.

"_What the hell do you want?"_ was the first thing that came out from the phone. Isa held his cell phone in a tight grip, reminding himself that it had to be done.

"Seifer, I need a job."

"_Well, well, well. You know I ain't giving you shit until you join the family. That means meeting the boss and swearing your loyalty to him and to the family – you up for that?"_

Isa hadn't seen Seifer since that night at the fishery - he was trembling, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. Beggars can't be choosers and there was no one else he could turn to now. Lea had been gone for weeks; probably on probation on his boss' orders or just around with that new girlfriend of his.

"How soon can it be arranged?"

"_I'll see what I can do, it should be by tonight or by tomorrow, I reckon. Keep your cell on." _

Seifer hung up. Isa sank down onto the first step of the stairs and held his arms over his head. He was going to make it through, joining the family wouldn't mean anything to him. He just needed to fix the medical bill to make sure his mother was taken care of properly. He would still have time to study and to attend the university exam. Isa repeated that in his head over and over to convince himself that it was the truth.

He headed back into the hospital and walked straight to the elevators down the hall to his left. Isa knew the sixth floor like the back of his hand, and he usually made an effort to be nice to the staff here and greet them when he saw them, but he was so far into his own thoughts that he wasn't sure there had been anyone to greet.

His mother shared the room with four other patients that could be rather loud when they all wanted something. It was surprising to enter the room and hear none of the chatter or complaints. A nurse had just pulled aside a window to let in some fresh air. The breeze that blew in made the white curtains dance along with it. The sun outside was shining into the room gently, and made it seem like this room was untouched by the bad things going on outside.

"Hello, Isa." The nurse smiled when she saw him, "Your mother just got to sleep."

Isa sat down on a chair by his mother, resting his body against the bed, with his head by her torso. He heard the nurse walk out of the room and he sighed. It was strange how at ease he felt here by his mother's side at the hospital. Home wasn't home anymore. He always preferred to be somewhere else.

"What's the matter, Isa?" His mother ran her fingers through his hair gently.

"Nothing."

"Hmm," she said in sing-song, "Something must be wrong if you're here while the sun is still up. Did you have a fight with Lea?"

"No."

"Is he waiting outside?"

"No."

"That really is strange. You both seem to be joined at the hip all the time."

"Time changes things."

Isa's mother laughed and ruffled his hair, "Aren't you in a brooding mood. Or is that just your philosophical side talking?"

Isa got up and tried to fix his hair back to the way it had been while snickering. His mother smiled and looked at Isa with a calming look on her face. Her slight frown at the fading bruise on his forehead nearly went by unnoticed. She didn't argue with him anymore, not about serious things anyway. It was always the same; she would start by saying that Lea was pulling him into the underworld, that he had never gotten into fights before, Isa would try to defend Lea, and Isa's mother would always end up with that damned look of pity in her eyes, because at the end of the day, Lea was the only friend he had.

"How is everything? Have you been eating properly?"

"Yes, mom." Isa rolled his eyes and sank into his chair.

"You say yes, but look at you. You seem to be worse off than me, and I'm eating hospital food!" She pouted and looked away with feigned hurt, "I worry about you, just like any good mother would. Have you been doing your best at work? Remember that the times are tough, not everyone has a job to go to nowadays."

"Mom!" Isa laughed and shoved her lightly, "Yes, I'm doing everything properly. Don't nag."

She sighed, "But seriously, look at you. You're practically all grown up. We'll have to do something really special for your 19th birthday."

"That's still a long way to go, mom."

"Three months, isn't it? Three months is nothing, you'll see how time will just fly by. Before you know it you'll be 21."

Isa's cell phone rang and Isa took a quick look at the ID caller and gulped. He smiled at his mother quickly and got up from the chair, "Mom, I gotta take this. I'll be right back."

Reality had caught up with him, even in this room that had seemed to serene.

**~ooo~**

The dark kimono felt foreign against his skin and so did the beautiful wooden floor beneath his feet as he walked down a long corridor after Seifer.

The house was exquisite. The garden at the front alone was surely worth millions of yen. Whoever owned it had mixed it up with influences from both the West and the East. The foyer had been spacious and it had a big crystal chandelier hanging from the high ceiling that Isa had been staring up at while he waited for Seifer to lead him to the boss, but the rooms upstairs were built like traditional Japanese houses.

"Don't offend him."

Seifer pulled aside one of the paper-doors and bowed his head. Isa stepped inside the room and gave it a quick look before bowing briefly. There was a young man by the low table, sitting with his legs folded underneath him. He was dressed in a dark kimono, his fringe hanged over his left eye and he gestured towards the table when he saw Isa stand there.

"Please, sit."

Isa sat down as a large man walked into the room. He put a small tray on the table with two small cups and an old pitcher of what Isa assumed to be sake.

"I hear you're in need of help, Isa. What is it that the family can do you for you?"

This man was nothing like Isa had imagined him to be. He had been expecting a middle-aged man surrounded by body guards in a room filled with cigarette smoke, but this man, Zexion, didn't seem like the typical gangster. He was looking at Isa intently, like he knew everything there was to know about Isa, and all he wanted was for Isa to clarify his intentions so that they could move on with this charade and get to the part where Isa decided to pledge his loyalty to Zexion.

"I need a loan."

"What for?"

The large man that had brought the sake sat down by the head of the low table. He poured the sake into the two cups, he filled Zexion's cup to the brim, Isa's cup was only half full, not that he was going to protest, he had never liked the taste of sake.

"I have bills to pay."

"Ah, yes, the hospital bill for your mother. Is she very ill?"

"Pulmonary cancer."

That smug look on Zexion's face led Isa's thoughts to a place he didn't want them to go; how did he know about Isa's mother? How did he know that she was ill? Had Lea told him? Seifer had known all about his plans and in Isa's mind there was only one conceivable reason for that to be possible. Zexion's insight on his situation helped him rationalize the doubts that he had blamed on the frustration created from not being able to get a hold of Lea when he needed him the most.

"Does she have a chance to survive it?"

"Yes."

Isa paled and his mouth went dry. Of course she would survive it, that's what the doctor told him at least, all she needed was the proper medical care that could only be provided for her there at the hospital, there was no room for doubt.

"Very well, then. I'll help your mother, Isa. You'll get your loan in exchange for a little something – your loyalty to me, to this family. You will follow my every order. Do we have a deal?"

At another time Isa might have at least questioned Zexion's interest in him; why was it so important for him to get Isa to join? What kind of jobs would Zexion have him do? What was the point of all of this? But he was no longer in a position where he could question the one person able to help him and his mother.

He nodded, reaching for his cup to take a sip of the sake. The taste of the fish scales was faint, but enough to make his stomach turn. The large man turned on the tray once Isa had put his cup back down, he had to drink out of Zexion's cup as well to finish this traditional initiation rite of the yakuza.

"Welcome to the Ingô family, brother."

**~ooo~**

The lounge was filled with well-dressed guests, mingling amongst themselves. It was hard to believe that the vast majority here belonged to the yakuza. Isa had thought that he would be spending most of his time in the red light districts, in dimly lit nightclubs with drunken costumers and hostesses, but almost every gathering had been like this one.

Zexion said that the yakuza was in decline, that there were people amongst them that were bringing the families down by disrupting old traditions and becoming nothing but mere criminals. The yakuza was different, he said, the yakuza had survived for centuries, protecting old traditions and worked as peacemakers between leaders in order to help society. Isa didn't agree with that at all, he found it difficult to believe that bribing politicians, maintaining human trafficking and assassinating people was in the best interest of the Japanese society.

He didn't voice those concerns, however. Zexion had taken care of the medical bill the very next day after Isa's initiation rite. His mother was receiving the care she needed, and Isa wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize anything of it, even if it cost him his future.

Three weeks had gone since that day. Isa had thought that he would be put on the streets to extortion people or guard the streets, but Zexion had him in the accounting and counseling division most of the time, which was just as well, it gave Isa time to study. He had been hoping he would get time to go to the evening classes at the library, but he hadn't been there in three weeks and he was worried that his teacher would give up on him and remove him from the application list for the scholarship.

"Don't look now, _bro_, but your boyfriend just walked in." Seifer chuckled as he passed him by and walked up to Lea who had stopped at the doorway to get a quick glimpse of the guests.

Lea was dressed in a black suit, much like every other man in here, he had tried to tame his hair and brush it out. He had managed to get it into a ponytail at least.

After exchanging some words with Seifer he looked back and reached his hand out to his date, the foreigner from the beach, her name escaped Isa's mind as usual. She had dressed up as well, and it was difficult to believe that she worked at one of Seifer's hostess clubs by the harbor by the way she looked now.

They made quite the good-looking couple, Isa thought as he watched them walk up to the refreshment table.

"Saïx, could you go and get us two glasses of champagne." Zexion turned his attention to Isa for the first time in at least thirty minutes, and gestured toward whoever it was he had engaged conversation with. Isa nodded, he wouldn't give Zexion the satisfaction of showing him how nervous he was of seeing Lea again. He might as well get this over with and take this opportunity to ask Lea where the hell he had been this past month.

"He sure doesn't skimp on the drinks." Isa heard the blonde girl comment as she took a sip of the champagne in her crystal glass.

"'Course not, haven't you seen what people he has invited?"

Lea leaned in to give his date a quick peck on the lips. He really didn't care much for the social rules when it came to showing affection in public, not even during events like these.

"Hi, Lea."

The surprised look on Lea's face when he turned around to make sure that he indeed had heard Isa's voice was nearly enough for Isa to regret opening his mouth when he could've gotten away with getting the champagne and getting back to Zexion without being noticed.

"Isa." He stared at him for a brief second. Isa was in a tailored suit and he could see a faint outline of an unfinished tattoo peaking out at the hem of the white shirt, "What, what are you doing here?"

"Socializing. How come you're here?" He didn't mean to sound cold or sarcastic, but the feelings that had been building up during this past month seemed to be bubbling to the surface at seeing Lea show up so casually with his date.

The look of surprise in Lea's eyes was replaced by one of anger, and he clenched his fists tightly, "Are you kidding?"

He walked up to Isa, grabbing him by his arm and dragged him out of the lounge, and out to the backyard. Lea closed the glass door behind him and looked around to make sure that no one else was out here.

"Isa, what have you done?"

"I'm trying to survive. This was the only thing I could do."

"You've joined?" Lea paled when Isa just looked back at him, "In exchange for what? Money? You couldn't wait for me to get back? I told you that I could help you with that. Isa…"

"I needed ten million yen in four days, Lea. Even if you were around you couldn't have helped me, but it would be nice to know where you've been this past month." _Who did you abandon me for? It wasn't for the family, because I've been here with them_.

Lea looked away, just like he always did when he was about to tell lie or when he was lying already. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed loudly as he started to pace.

"I got in trouble and I decided to lay low for a while. I thought it would be dangerous for you to be around me, and it was best if you didn't know where I was until things had settled. Not sure if I made the right call though, you make lousy decisions when I'm not around."

"Lousy decisions," Isa repeated in a mumble. Lea probably intended for it to sound cute, but it just reminded Isa of what Lea saw him as, "So you kept me out to protect me?"

"Yeah."

"Because there's no way that I would be able to fend for myself, right?"

"What? No, Isa, that's not what I meant. You don't seem to understand what you've gotten yourself into here. This is the yakuza we're talking about. If they have a bone to pick with someone they will stop at nothing to get the job done."

Lea walked up to Isa and made sure he had his attention before he continued, "I'm sorry that I had you worried, Isa. From now on I'll keep you informed of everything, and I won't disappear on you again. Forgive me, please?" He tilted his head to his side and pouted.

He wasn't ready to forgive Lea yet, he knew that he would eventually, and in the meantime he would enjoy his company. It wasn't until Lea pulled him in for a hug that he realized how much he had missed him, and for a split second he wished he could break and tell Lea all about this past month, about his mother, and about the anguish of having absolutely no one to turn to, but they heard someone open the door and step out to the garden.

Lea broke the hug to see who it was and smiled widely at the blonde beauty.

"Axel, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine." He walked up to her and put his arm around her, "I don't think you've been properly introduced. Isa this is Larxene, Larxene this is Isa."

"You were at that beach party, right?"

Isa nodded and smiled softly, "Yeah, I was. I…" He saw Lexaeus through the glass door, he stared disapprovingly at Isa, his brow was deeply burrowed and he had clenched his jaws tightly. Zexion had probably hoped for the drama to unfold in the lounge and not in the backyard.

"I have to go. Enjoy the rest of the evening." Isa bowed his head slightly before walking back into the house to meet up with Lexaeus. He would probably have to stand by Zexion's side and look interested in whatever conversation he was having for the rest of the evening, but it seemed like a cheap price to pay for the millions of yen he received.

"Did you tell him everything?" Larxene brushed a stray hair away from Lea's forehead as he shook his head, "Why?"

"What's the point? It's all in the past now, right? Besides, we have a bigger problem now."

"Him joining the family isn't that big a problem, is it? It was going to happen sooner or later, Zexion always gets what he wants. It was just a matter of time, and this is better than having him chase farfetched dreams of getting some prestigious scholarship that leads nowhere, right?"

"I don't know, it's just, I thought that he would make it. Who knows what they'll have him do here. Zexion just wants him here to spite him and to get some weird ego boost."

"You worry too much, he'll be fine here. He's only been here for a month, but he's already up in ranks. Maybe he'll even get to save you once or twice now that he's got some power. C'mon, let's go back in and have high class fun."

"It sure is a change from the time we spend downtown and at the harbor."

Larxene grabbed a hold of his hand and dragged him back inside where a live-band was now settling in the lounge to start the second part of this social event. Having Lea close to her in a house that reminded her so much of her father helped her keep her thoughts in check, and it was easier to enjoy this life of luxury that Zexion offered his guests.

Lea kept a look out for Isa back in the lounge, Isa stood by Zexion's side and got to speak to some of the politicians from the LDP, the same politicians that always came to Zexion to get favors done. Isa joining the family hadn't been in his plans, but at least he would be able to keep him in check, and maybe this would turn out for the best after all. At least Isa wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

**~ooo~**

The clock's insistent ticking was making Isa nervous and he kept glaring at it to make sure that he still was in time. He had three hours more to go, and he looked at the diminishing pile of paper he was working his way through. It wasn't that bad, he would make it to the library, if he only would stop looking at the clock so much.

This was going to be an eventful week. Today, Saturday, he had the test that would decide the rest of his life; he was either going to university and make something out of himself, or he was going to be stuck here forever. He had at least three meetings to attend to together with Seifer, and at the end of the week, he was invited to a dinner held by the new rising political leader of the LDP. It was the first dinner party he was going to attend together with Zexion in a whole month, and he was actually looking forward to it.

Isa reached for the phone with a sigh and called up his teacher. He had only had the chance to talk to him twice since joining the family. The first time had been at the foyer of Crowne Hotel, he had seemed stressed, but he had given Isa his number and told him to call him if there was anything he wanted to talk about. The second time he had seemed out of it, like his mind was somewhere else completely, but he had given Isa the information he needed to keep studying at least.

Now he needed a favor.

"Hello? This is Isa Tsukiji and I'd like to talk to professor Ansem, please."

"_Professor Ansem? He's not in right now. Can I take your message?"_

"When does he come back?"

"_He's out for the day, actually. Did you have an appointment?"_

"Well, no. I'm a student of his and I wanted to tell him that I might be late for the exam today, and I was wondering if that was going to be a problem."

"_You mean the qualification exam for the scientific scholarship to Tokyo University?"_

"Yes."

"_In that case you have to be on time, no exceptions. The doors will be closed at 18:00 sharp. If you want to apply for the scholarship you'll have to be on time, sir, that's the rules for everyone."_

"Okay, thanks."

Isa hung up and got back to work immediately. Zexion wouldn't let him off the hook until all of this was done, these were the fees the street divisions were going to pick up from the stores around here that paid for protection, and Isa needed to map out the stores that didn't pay their fee so that the thugs knew who to extort.

He didn't really anguish much about it anymore. The people involved in this were mere numbers to him now, it was easier to deal with it if he just thought of it as a job that needed to be done, a job that only had him doing math all day long.

"We have a crook on our hands."

Isa looked up quickly to greet one of the higher-ups, Xaldin, as he strolled into the big office room. He wasn't supposed to be here with his subordinates, but rumors had it that the big boss himself had sent Xaldin down here to deal with a new gang that were trying to take away their turfs.

"A new one?"

"Same old, it's just that we finally have him pinpointed. He decided to show his ugly face."

Xaldin sat down on a chair across from Isa. He was a big and muscular man, he was almost the same size as Lexaeus and the chair squeaked as he leaned back on it with the usual disgruntled look on his face. He used to be a boxer before becoming a yakuza full-time, but all those hits to the head had almost made him blind and he had no choice but to retire and hope that he would recuperate. There wasn't much speaking for his return to the ring though, he had been out from the sport for five years at least, and he was well needed with the family.

"And?"

"A chink." Xaldin said with a shake of his head, "A chink is trying to take over Kobe with a petty group of lowlifes."

Isa didn't react to Xaldin's choice of words, to the family the Chinese were only useful when they did the dirty work for them and then left Japanese soil. Racism seemed to be a frequent thing amongst his brothers, it was strange to Isa that Lea had found his place here so quickly when his fiery red hair and emerald green eyes were a constant reminder that he wasn't Japanese.

"Are the triads trying to take over again?"

"I don't know, maybe. We can't let them take over though, even one is too much." The chair squeaked again when Xaldin leaned forward and the silence stretched until Isa looked up from the documents he was working on, "That redhead, that friend of yours, he's together with Larxene, right?"

"Yeah." Isa dared to quickly look him in the eye in an attempt to read his intentions, but he failed. Why would someone of Xaldin's stature care if Lea was dating Larxene or not?

"How much are you wiring to Seifer to have him move her around from hostess club to hostess club?"

Isa's heart started to beat faster, his mouth had gone dry and he gripped his pencil tighter, "What are you talking about?"

"This isn't a hearing, Saïx, and there's no need for you to deny it. I already know. Axel called you and asked you to help him, because that chink has been pestering Larxene, but you needed Seifer's cooperation and he never does anything out of the goodness of his heart, not after you got his girlfriend killed. How much are you wiring to Seifer, Saïx?"

"50.000 yen, every week and to different accounts. I did it on my own. Lea…Axel didn't know about it."

"Of course he did, Saïx. Larxene wouldn't be the one to ask you for help, and you wouldn't help her if she did, not by putting your neck out at least." Xaldin paused for effect, just long enough to have Isa look up again and assure Xaldin that he had his attention, "You cut out a good deal for yourself too, I hope. You're not just giving away that money for free."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you had Axel pledge his loyalty to you, right? Because if this money scheme was to be known by someone else less understanding, you'd be in deep trouble, and that would be a shame – you're very good at what you do, Saïx."

"He doesn't have to pledge anything to me."

"Right, because you're friends. It's not like he's turned you into a cash cow, and he's definitely not sucking you dry."

Isa looked at him in silence, uncertain of what to say to that.

"He tells you of his plans, doesn't he? If he was to leave for Tokyo tomorrow, you would know that, right? You're financing the life of his prostitute girlfriend, telling you what he has planned is the least he has to do, am I right?"

Lea was going to Tokyo? For how long? Isa gulped, he hadn't specified what he wanted in return for that money, it hadn't occurred to him that he should ask for anything in return, he figured that it was a silent agreement that they would keep each other informed of what they planned.

"I'm sure you know that he's not going by himself either. He's taking Larxene with him, and Seifer will still receive his money even while she's gone, and Larxene will still receive a paycheck even though she's not working, and it's still your neck on the line here. You're the one with the ultimate responsibility, Saïx."

"How long will they be gone?"

"I can't remember all the details."

Isa pulled out a small, black laptop from the top drawer and flipped it open. This was where he kept all the family accounts, all the income and expenditures were in this laptop. He controlled a big part of the finances and he had received enough offers like these to not recognize them when he heard them.

"How much do you want?"

"How much information do you want?"

"All of it."

"Make it a hundred once a week. Can you make it work?"

Isa glared at Xaldin quickly before turning his attention back to the laptop without answering the question, "How long will they be gone?"

"Two to three weeks, depending on how long the money lasts."

"What money?"

Xaldin smirked and gave Isa a pitiful look, "You were really screwed by that redhead in your deal, Saïx. He's on Seifer's good side again, the money's from him. Maybe it was a gift for the new life they are going to start?"

"They're getting married in Tokyo?"

The secretive look on Xaldin's face made him nervous and he looked after him when he got up from his chair and walked around the table.

"We have a division in Tokyo, the boss there is a good friend of mine. I'll make sure that he keeps an eye out for your friend as long as you keep your end."

They heard someone walk down the hallway. Xaldin nodded in Zexion's direction when he stepped out the office to see who was approaching them.

"Xaldin, what are you doing here at this time of day? I was under the impression that numbers bored you."

"I'm just killing time before the meeting."

Zexion turned to Isa, letting Xaldin leave. He sighed loudly to get Isa's attention and he brushed his bangs back slightly even though they always fell back over his right eye.

"Saïx, we have to leave, the car is downstairs."

"What? Where? You don't have any appointments today." Isa looked at the clock on the wall and tried not to show his frustration at Zexion's sudden whim to go out and drag Isa with him.

"You really are an imbecile. The scholarship exam is in two hours, you're taking it too, aren't you? We might as well go there in the same car. Pack your stuff and let's go."

Isa nodded, dumbfounded at Zexion's request. He followed him downstairs and out of the mansion. A black Mercedes with tainted windows stood waiting for them by the entrance. Zexion's chauffeur held up the door for the both of them and closed it gently after them.

As they took off, Isa couldn't even bring himself to wonder why Zexion was being nice for once; all he could think of was the test and the future it promised him.

**~ooo~**

Nurses and doctors walked down the corridor, there was a lot of noise coming from the patients, the trolleys that were pushed around everywhere, and the doctors insistent mumbling between one and another was enough to make Isa's head hurt.

He was walking down the corridor on the sixth floor to visit his mother, but first he had to make a stop at the waiting room because Dr. Akihara wanted a word with him. It was a strange request, Isa thought, the doctor rarely wanted to include him in the treatment of his mother, but Zexion's money seemed to have made Isa easier to deal with.

Isa followed the white line on the floor, his shoulders were slumped and it felt comforting having something to focus his gaze on. The exam for the scholarship had taken place two days ago. He really had thought that he had a shot at it, he had given it his all and it hadn't been enough

The scholarship had gone to the one with the best score; Zexion.

His chest had felt tight ever since he found out, and everything seemed like a foggy haze. The work at the office had been the one thing that had kept him going, and truth to be told, he wouldn't have come here to face his mother while in shame if it hadn't been for the doctor calling him.

"Isa, there you are! You're late." The doctor walked up to him, his usually neutral expression into one of distress, "You haven't been here in days, Isa. What are you trying to do to your poor mother?"

"I've been busy."

Dr. Akihara quickly eyed the dragon tattoo that peaked discreetly from the hem of Isa's white shirt. He was still in his suit he realized when he saw Dr. Akihara look away with a small shake of his head. It was just as well, with him failing the exam he should be getting used to those looks, this was going to be his life from now on.

"Well, you're here now. Your mother didn't want me to tell you this, Isa, but you have to prepare for what's to come and maybe have arrangements made beforehand... the cancer has spread. It's really aggressive and our attempts to keep it at bay have failed. I'm sorry, Isa, but the only thing we can do for your mother now is to make her as comfortable as we can."

"W-what does that…" That tightness in his chest was starting to hurt really badly and for a second he forgot how to breathe. He looked at the doctor, "What does that mean? How much more time does she have?"

"I don't know, a few days, a month maybe."

"And… she knows?"

The look of pity in the doctor's eyes didn't even bother him anymore. He nodded, "For two weeks now. We thought that maybe we could get it in check, but, since we couldn't, I thought that you should know."

"Can I go and see her now?"

"Yeah, of course. If you need help with the arrangements the hospital provides –"

Isa walked off, not in the least interested in what the doctor had to say. A few days, maybe a month, that's what his mother had left to live.

As if in a trance he went back to the ground floor and walked out of the hospital. Each breath made his chest hurt, and he tried to breathe in deep as he was met by the cool breeze outside. He walked into a coffee store nearby and bought tea, cupcakes, a candle and a bouquet of lent lilies before he went back to the sixth floor.

He had no recollection of his way into his mother's room. One minute he was standing by the cashier and in the next his mother turned her head when she felt his presence, and she smiled at him. She was pale. She had put a scarf on her head to hide her bald head, she seemed tired, and yet there was a spark of fire in her eyes that reminded Isa of the lively woman he knew.

"Honey, why didn't you tell me you were coming? I would've at least put some make-up on."

"You're beautiful as you are."

Her smile grew wider as Isa walked up closer, she pulled the small table, that was attached to her bed, closer when she saw that Isa had brought things to eat.

"Wow, look at those. They're going straight to my thighs." She looked at the two cupcakes and tasted the frosting on one of them. Isa took the vase by her nightstand and walked up to the sink by the door to fill it with fresh water while his mother took the bouquet in her arms and smelled the flowers.

"Mm, lent lilies, my favorite."

She gave them back to Isa when he put the vase back on the nightstand and she watched Isa fix the bouquet before he took a seat by her bed.

"You're wearing a suit," she said once he had sat down, "You look so handsome, Isa."

Isa reached for the paper bag the cupcakes had been in and reached for the candle that he had bought with a small sigh. His mother looked at him expectantly and seemed slightly surprised when he put the candle on one of the cupcakes.

"I'm going on a business trip and I don't know if I'll make it back for my birthday, so I thought that we could celebrate my birthday today instead."

"A business trip?" She looked impressed and took another look at the suit, "You're not working at the fishery." The realization of why her son was wearing a suit slowly sunk in and she shook her head softly as she put her hand over her mouth as if she was trying to keep her tears in.

"Of course you aren't. You've always aspired higher. Isa, I'm so proud of you. You'll do great things, honey. I know you will." She reached her hand out and cupped his face gently, "You know, you were born on a full moon, and your grandmother told me that same night that I had nothing to worry about; people born in full moon are strong, and she was right. You are strong, Isa."

He smiled and chuckled lightly, "Yeah, I know, mom. You've told me that story a hundred times already." He quickly reached for the lighter to get a break from looking at his mother and regain his composure before he made her suspect that the doctor had told him everything.

"How's Lea?"

Isa fumbled with the lighter and reached for the candle as soon as he got it to work, "Lea? He's fine. He's his usual self."

"Are you getting along alright?"

"Yeah, of course we are," Isa smiled, "He wanted to be here today, but I told him to stay out. I don't want him upsetting you, not on my birthday party."

"Poor thing, it would've been nice seeing him though. It's been so long now, I almost miss that little rascal."

Isa held the cupcake in his hand to keep a close look on the lit candle, "Alright, are you ready to sing a little English?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Isa, we can sing another song in Japanese. An enka song maybe?"

"Mom!"

It wasn't until that evening that Isa realized what a good liar he could be, during that whole evening his heart had threatened to shatter every time his mother smiled, every time she told a story that he had heard a hundred times before. He didn't know what kept him from falling apart, maybe his grandmother was right. Maybe being born during a full moon had made him strong enough to endure this, or maybe he didn't want to weigh his mother with his own feelings when she was the one on her deathbed, hoping to give her son one last good memory with her before she left this realm.

He walked around the city all night, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't stand still. The ache in his chest was suffocating and it seemed like a part of him believed that he could run away from it. If he walked far enough then maybe it would stop hurting for just a moment, just long enough to maybe think of something to make everything better.

The sun was rising by the time he reached the harbor, his legs were aching almost as much as he chest, but he kept walking until he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket.

"_Isa, I'm sorry. Your mother passed away this morning at eight thirty. It was a shock for all of us. My deepest sympathies, your mother was…"_

He wished time had stopped then. He wished that everyone would disappear so that he could try to comprehend what just had happened, and to give him time to make a decision. He had a vague memory of looking out over the sea from a bridge, the wind against his skin and the bright morning sky had felt like a mockery from above, and maybe he had contemplated on jumping. He wasn't sure what had kept him on that bridge, he didn't even know how he had gotten back to the mansion, he had even less of a clue as to how he got through the memorial service.

_Tsukiji Asako_

When had this stone been made and why had it his mother's name on it, he wondered as he knelt in front of it. He was holding a bouquet of flowers he realized after a few moments and he put it by her gravestone, not really aware of what it was he was doing. It was raining hard, the rain was cold and merciless, and Isa thought that it shouldn't be any other way.

"Saïx, the car is waiting."

Zexion's voice felt strangely real in this haze he was living in right now. Isa could see Zexion's reflection in the shiny surface of his mother's gravestone. He stood there with Lexaeus, ever loyal by his side, under a big, black umbrella. They were both dressed in black, they must've been at the memorial service. Strange, Isa mused for a moment.

"How long have I been here?"

"Long enough. You can come back here tomorrow, you need rest now."

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"You're supposed to live on, Saïx. You'll surpass this and go back to normal."

Was that encouraging words? What was normal? What was normal about his life right now? Isa looked over his shoulder to see if there were any sign of anyone else but Zexion and Lexaeus, maybe they had all left long ago. It did seem like Zexion had been right about him being here long enough, the rain had made his body numb and it was difficult to stand up, but he managed to walk up to Zexion.

"Your brothers await you."

He didn't have a sympathetic look on his face; there was no look of pity, just the same old Zexion, stating a fact. It didn't help much, although it might have alleviated a little to know that there were people willing to call him brother, even if it just was a charade.

**~ooo~**

**Late September**

**~ooo~**

Zexion favored the Crowne Hotel for some reason Isa had yet to figure out, not that he minded. The hotel was beautifully decorated, even the foyer on the ground level. He could hardly imagine how pretty the top floor was. Zexion was at a meeting with that man from the Chinese triads. It was a secretive meeting, and only Lexaeus had been allowed to go with him.  
>Isa had been ordered to wait in the foyer, and there he was, waiting for his superior to finish his business so that Isa could get back to the never ending paperwork back home.<p>

He felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and he took it out slowly and looked at it with an empty expression. His heart skipped a beat when he saw who it was from, it wasn't a pleasant feeling. He had fallen into a nice sense of numbness since the day of the memorial service, rendering every other feeling into something painful and bothersome.

"_Happy birthday, Isa! You're not doing anything today, right? Remember that you promised. I have a surprise for you so meet me up at the harbor venue at seven. Don't be late."_

Even through that simple message, Lea drew him out. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go there, he was certain that he didn't want to see Lea, and yet he found himself running towards the harbor venue to be there at seven sharp. A part of him was scared that he'd get there and see that there was no one there waiting for him, but another part was excited and almost happy at catching a glimpse of the past he had lost.

There weren't many people out on the harbor when he got there. He looked forward to see if maybe Lea was sitting on the benches alongside the harbor, but he could only see a few couples on every other bench. Isa stood there and tried to catch his breath while he kept looking out for Lea when he suddenly felt someone run up behind him. Before he could react he was blindfolded and he put his hands over the soft fabric covering his eyes.

"Did you know that this strip is almost six miles long?"

Lea's breath was warm against his ear and the sound of his voice made him feel strangely safe. Lea led him forward gently, his hands on Isa's waist to guide him properly down the pavement.

"Are we walking that long?"

"Not really, we can go for a long walk after the big event, and after that we could go to a Tivoli downtown. They have cotton candy and merry-go-rounds."

"Where have you been?"

"All over the place, there are jobs all over town."

"You've been here in Kobe?"

Lea chuckled, "Where else, silly? How is it going on your end? Are they being nice to you?"

He moved in closer when a wind blew in from the ocean to hear Isa's response, and he smiled when Isa nodded. It didn't seem like he was lying, why would he lie? Xaldin had probably just been playing mind games with him to get money, and Isa had bought into that in less than a second.

"Alright, we're standing outside the surprise. It's quite a big one, and it's been on our to-do-list for a while, but for some reason we haven't done it yet. Are you ready?"

"Ready."

The Kobe Port Tower stood alight, illuminating its surroundings with different colors. It looked impressive this close up, and he could only imagine the view from the top. The Kobe skyline, the vast ocean, the endless sky, the sea of light from the city; the perfect view.

"There's another surprise at the top. Two, or maybe one, the other isn't really a surprise, but it's sort of a part of the actual surprise… you'll have to see it to get it."

Isa looked at Lea for the first time in ages, he looked so grown up. He had been working out, he wasn't as scrawny as he used to be, and his work out on the streets gave him a rough look that actually suited him.

"Are you okay? You look tired." Lea put his hand on Isa's forehead to check his temperature and frowned slightly, "You're not ill, are you? Or we'll have to switch the surprise up top for some chicken soup and a couple of bad movies."

"No, I'm fine." Isa sighed, he suddenly felt out of breath when Lea looked at him like there was no other person in the world he would pay attention to now, maybe it was a look that was all in Isa's head because he suddenly felt an urge to tell Lea everything.

All of his thoughts wanted to be formulated at once, and for a moment he thought that he wouldn't be able to do it, but if he couldn't talk about it with Lea, then who?

"Actually, there's…"

"Axel!"

They both looked over at the entrance to the Kobe Port Tower and saw a young woman wave at them. Lea grabbed Isa by his wrist and dragged him along with a huge grin on his face.

"Happy birthday, Isa, or should I call you Saïx? You are my superior after all." She hurried to Lea's side and put an arm around his waist to come in close and get warm.

Was Lea serious? Were they really going to bring the rest of the evening with her, a woman Isa barely knew and had no interest of knowing?

He wanted to explode. He wanted to scream and get this sickening feeling out, but he could just feel his chest clench as he stared back at Lea's "prostitute girlfriend", like Xaldin had called her, thinking that maybe he looked as angry as he felt.

"Hey, Isa? You with us?" Lea waved his hand right in front of Isa's face to get him to react, "Don't go spacing out on us now, we had to pull on a few strings to make this happen, and I still don't think it was a smart idea leaving that guard with the surprise. He didn't look reliable."

"He'll do fine. We're taking the elevator up anyway, we'll be there in a flash. You've got the tickets, right?" Larxene dug in Lea's pockets and found the three tickets to the Kobe Port Tower with triumphant smile, "Let's get this party started."

"Isa, c'mon, it's freezing here."

He must have followed them, because next thing he knew he was standing in front of the elevator. The thought of standing in it for however long it took to get the top made only the clenching in his chest worse. The walls began to close in on him and if he was to be given a wish at this very moment, he would wish to never have to hear that woman's grating voice ever again.

"All elevators should have a see-through floor," she said as they waited for the elevator to come.

"Especially if it's in a skyscraper," Lea added.

"The staircases too, that way no one gets away with being a coward."

"Or afraid of heights, which is not the same as being a coward, by the way."

Isa shook his head slightly and closed his eyes for a brief moment, he had to calm down if he didn't want to break down here and cause an unnecessary scene.

"I'm not good with small spaces. I'll take the stairs."

"What? But, Isa…"

He walked past them and hurried to the staircase, there he could probably stall long enough to make this evening go by faster without having to be in their company.

"I told you that I shouldn't have come," Isa heard Larxene whisper to Lea as the door shut behind him. What wouldn't he give to get a phone call from any of his superiors now, telling him to get back to headquarters immediately because there was a pile of paper to be dealt with and all of it had to be done before midnight.

He had hoped that the exit out on the deck was on the opposite direction of where Lea and Larxene were, and it was, but Lea had been waiting for him right by the exit, and if it hadn't been for the insistent heaviness over his body, he would've clocked Lea right there and then for dragging him here when he could have been asleep.

"Isa, what's the matter?" Lea's look was piercing and demanding, as if Isa was the one who owed him an explanation, "Are you mad at us or something? Look, I know that you don't do well with new people around, but I swear, if you get to know Larxene you'll really like her, and she was looking forward to getting to know you. The surprise up here was her idea, just – please stop moping and give her a chance – please?"

"Yeah, sure."

How casual had he sounded to make Lea smile like that? Did it even matter? That smile wasn't really for him, Lea just wanted him to accept Larxene, and he had smiled because he thought that Isa was willing to give her a chance. Did Lea think that he would be more willing to help her if he got to know her? Was this a business meeting?

Larxene had been sitting by a table that had been randomly placed in the middle of the deck hall. There were balloons in different colors hanging around the table, the tablecloth was dark pink, and she had set the table with cute china and in the middle was the cake.

"Axel and I thought that we'd be able to bake you a cake, but we didn't quite make it, so we bought this one instead."

Isa smiled softly, at least he could be nice about this. He sat down by the plate with his name on it while Lea dug in his pocket for his lighter and Larxene pulled out the cake cutter from a bag underneath the table.

"Here we go," Lea pulled out his lighter and dropped a few receipts as he reached over the cake to light the candles. Isa reached down and picked them up, ready to roll them into a ball and throw it in the bin, but then he saw what it was; receipts from restaurants in Tokyo.

"You went to Tokyo?" He wasn't sure if he had made himself heard, it wasn't his place to ask, and maybe he didn't want to know. Isa quickly looked for a ring on Larxene's ring finger, but she was wearing mittens.

"Yeah, it was just –"

"You were there today."

Larxene took the bunch of receipts in Isa's hand and chuckled, "Well, we had to get you something good, boss."

As she pulled out a small wrapped package from her bag, Isa turned to Lea with a questioning look, but Lea looked away, just like he always did when he was about to lie or when he was lying already.


	11. The Blue Haired Girl

**********Title:******** **Last Train********  
><strong>Author:<strong> ********nikki_ntm********  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ********Shattered Apocalypse********  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ********11/20********  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ****Drama/Adventure/Suspense****  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**** M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.********  
><strong>Characters:<strong>****** **Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).********  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ****Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.********  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ********Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**Chapter 11: The Blue Haired Girl**

The sirens had gone silent and Axel tried to hear if there were any screams out on the streets, but the more he tried, the less he could focus. The red lights in this place were buzzing, and in the silence the sound became louder until it seemed like it was coming from inside Axel's head.

Saïx had lay down on a stretcher once they had gone back to the room where the safe was, and it seemed like he had fallen asleep. Axel had thought of leaving, he wanted to make sure that the people outside were alright, that Kairi and her mother were safe from whatever it was Saïx had unleashed, but there was something else he had to deal with first.

He glared at the safe; the small screen above the button pad was still lit green. Axel got up from his seat and looked at Saïx carefully, maybe he would have the decency to stop him from opening the safe if there was something dangerous in it.

"I've hated you for a while."

Axel froze and gulped. The safe was an arm length away, he was so close to find out what was in that safe and yet he couldn't bring himself to open it. What was behind that door? More of Ansem's experiments? Did he even want to know? All the leads up until now had been nothing but confusing, and his trust in Saïx was brittle at best.

"Me?" He asked as Saïx's statement slowly sunk in.

"It's strange. I thought I hated you for a particular reason, but everything you do pisses me off."

"Are you okay?" Axel walked up to him. Maybe he was delirious from being in here for too long, and Saïx had never been good with small spaces.

"You're selfish."

"No need to go that far with the compliments. You know I don't do well with an inflated ego." Axel leaned back against the long white table and dug his hands into his pockets. "Why do you hate me?"

"Because you're a despicable human being. You actually think that there's a way for you to redeem all the things you've done, you think that you are worthy a second chance and you chose me as the charity case. Nothing in this world can erase all the bad things you've done, Axel. They should haunt you forever, and you should suffer for it. If there's any justice in this world, that's how it should be."

Axel snorted, "There's a really nice proverb that you might've heard before, let he without sin cast the first stone. You've pulled some ugly stunts yourself, so don't get too comfortable up on that high horse of yours."

"That's the second time I've heard that today," Saïx said, never once taking his gaze away from the ceiling, "I don't take pride in being what I am. I don't understand why you or anyone else would think that I do."

"You do a great job of giving that impression. You love bossing people around and getting all the credit for it. Quite a carefree life you've created for yourself while I was gone. Now you have loads of people cleaning up your messes. I can't really blame you for wanting to go back."

Saïx chuckled bitterly and rubbed his eyes gently, "The only messes I've had to clean up are yours, Axel."

"Pardon?"

"I told you to stay away from Larxene and yet you kept at it, all the while Zexion got angrier..."

"You didn't kill Zexion for me, Saïx. If you wanna play the blame-game, fine, but let's keep the bullshit to a minimum. Zexion had no interest in Larxene. She was of no use to him, you brought her into this."

"Marluxia wanted her."

"In that case I'm glad I meddled. That psycho isn't good for anyone, and who knows what he wanted to do with Larxene. Bottom line is that you need to face facts. You have lots of blood on your hands too, and for reasons far more selfish than I ever had. You know why you killed Zexion –" Axel stopped and felt his mouth go dry as he realized what he was about to say.

Saïx sat up and looked right at him.

"Why did I kill Zexion, Axel?"

Axel fumbled with the words to say to not make matters worse. The words "for power" lingered in his mind as he looked away. He had tried to convince himself that he really didn't know why Saïx had done it, but the rest of the family seemed to know why, Axel was the only one who wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The red lights flickered and Axel looked around and then back at Saïx. The temperature dropped and as the light steadied, blood started to run down Saïx's nose and he swayed briefly, trying to sit up straight.

"That's it, we're outta here." Axel grabbed Saïx by his arm, turning his back to him to push him up his back gently. He took Saïx's other arm and put it over his shoulder, "Hold on." Axel put his arms under Saïx's legs to keep him up and hurried out of the room and towards the long corridor.

"We can't leave," Saïx breathed when he noticed that they were on the move.

"We can't stay either. This place is really messing you up and I'm not gonna stick around to see how far it can go."

He looked up the ladder, hoping that the monster had been scared off.

"Saïx, hold on, okay? It's gonna hurt like a mother if you fall off," Axel pushed Saïx higher up his back and made sure that Saïx had clasped his arms around his neck before he reached for the ladder.

"You're gonna get the fish stuff on you like this..."

A shiver ran down Axel's spine as he recognized that from somewhere and his surprise came out as a shaky exhale. For a second it wasn't Saïx on his back, it was the person he was hoping to save, the person he many times had thought of as long dead. Sometimes he thought he saw glimpses of that person, but he usually shrugged them off as nostalgia or wishful thinking, but there was no denying in what he just had heard – he was still here.

"I don't mind."

He climbed up the ladder, making sure that Saïx had a firm grip every step of the way. Just a bit from the exit, Axel stopped and nudged Saïx, "You have to climb up the last bit yourself, we won't fit through there together."

Saïx reached for the ladder and climbed over Axel, slowly, until he was back in the room above them. Axel hurried up after him and pushed the tatami back in place as quietly as he could. He took a quick look around to make sure that there were no monsters in the vicinity. It was oddly relaxing to back be in the old house, the red lights downstairs had put him on alert and made him more irritable than usual.

"I'm bleeding." Saïx wiped off the blood from his nose with the back of his hand.

"Nah, it's stopped already." Axel took a quick look and then hurried up onto his feet, helping Saïx up as well. "Let's go before Psycho and the Bulky Giant come after us."

As Axel pulled the door aside and stepped out on the porch slowly, he expected to see chaos, to hear screams, to feel the overwhelming stench of blood, but there was nothing. He wasn't sure if he was disappointed to see that everything looked exactly the same.

"Something's wrong."

The wood squeaked under his weight. He stopped to peer around every corner they turned and he tightened his grip around Saïx's wrist to drag him along. Marluxia and Xaldin were probably gone already. If the monster hadn't scared them away, the siren had.

It took them at least five minutes to come back to the street from which they had entered the house. There were a few cicadas singing softly, but the street was deserted and the trees swayed with the gentle wind.

"Axel!"

He turned to where he heard a soft voice call for him until he saw Kairi step out of a bush by the house they had just gotten out of. She brushed away some leafs off her blue jacket and hurried up to them with a frown on her face.

"What happened? I was worried sick. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. We're fine. What are you doing here, Kairi? I told you to stay put, it's dangerous out here."

"We have to hurry back home. I saw what you're running away from and mom told me that you had to seek cover."

"I don't know. We can't be putting you in –"

"What's wrong with Saïx?"

Axel turned around and saw that Saïx was shaking and he had a blank look on his face as he stared out into nothing. The sudden noises coming from the house was enough for Axel to decide that maybe Kairi's home was the safest place right now. He carried Saïx on his back as he followed Kairi down the street and out of Shimabara and back to the house they had left only a few hours ago.

**~ooo~**

**2004**

**~ooo~**

"Isa! Stop!"

Lea ran up to Isa, grabbing his arm to keep him from walking away. The rain was pouring down over the city and the sudden breeze sent a chill down Lea's back.

"You can't do this. You don't have to do this, Isa. You know that, so why?" Lea tightened his grip when Isa tried to pull away, and he stared firmly at Isa in hope that his friend would turn around to face him. "Please, talk to me, Isa. What's going on? Why are you agreeing to this?"

The cold snort at Lea's question and the indifferent look in Isa's eyes when he turned around made Lea's chest ache.

"It's too late for this, Lea." His voice was so controlled and his face so stern. There was a lot more to it than that, Lea could see that there were a million things haunting Isa behind that facade he had put up, the facade that he had been building on for years. The body of the dragon tattoo on Isa's neck was a taunt and a reminder of when Isa had begun to change.

"What are you talking about? Too late for what? Tell me! What is it? Huh?" Lea shook him, digging his nails into Isa's arm to keep him in place, "Please! Explain it to me, because I don't understand! Are you having money trouble? I can help you with that, we can work together and raise enough money."

Isa remained silent, looking away whenever Lea looked him in the eye. He was breathing heavy, trying to swallow the insisting lump in his throat, "Is it Seifer? Did he do something again? I swear, I'll kick his ass nine ways from Sunday – I'll have him eat his own shit if I have to, but whatever he said or threatened with –"

Isa pushed Lea away with a growl, "Shut up!"

Lea tripped and fell onto the ground with a thump. He hurried back up onto his feet, staring at Isa with a surprised look, wondering if he should say something as Isa gritted his teeth, his fists clenched tightly.

"I don't need you to stand up for me, Lea! I can defend myself. I can fight my own battles. I don't need to explain myself to you. I'm doing this because I want to, because I need to learn how to look out for myself."

"You don't have look out for yourself. I have your back and you have mine. That's how it always has been." Lea tried to find any trace of acknowledgment in Isa's eyes but he turned around.

"That hasn't been true for quite some time, has it?"

With that Isa ran away, disappearing around a corner that led to yet another alleyway. Lea hesitated for a brief moment while trying to understand what it was Isa had meant by that, but he set out after him. He didn't have to understand.

The alleyways stretched through half the city and it made them a perfect hideout place for criminals in training. It was getting darker and the lack of street lamps was making it difficult to see ahead, but Lea knew that he was close. Raijin's words echoed in Lea's head as he saw Isa stop at the far end of the alleyway. Lea reached for the gun he had concealed underneath his blazer and slowed down to quietly get closer to Isa.

"_He's going to kill Wada, the boss at the fishery."_

Lea could still not comprehend why their boss would want Wada dead or why he would make Isa do it. Zexion was a smart man; Lea respected him as the boss and admired his sense for business, but this had seemed off from the get go.

He watched Isa reach for his gun when he saw Wada walk by the alleyway to move the trashcans. Wada looked up when he saw something move in the alleyway. Lea remembered seeing a smile, a look of horror and Isa's shaking hands. Everything after that seemed like fragments that skipped forward at the rhythm of his unforgiving heart and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

The bullet tore through the air with a deafening sound that bounced against the old walls, and through the narrow alleyway, and the speed by which it traveled seemed to suck the air out of Lea's lungs as he saw it claim its victim, cutting right through the man's forehead with a certain force that shouldn't be given to something so small and meaningless.

Isa sank to the ground at the same time he heard that gun go off and he dropped his own gun as he saw Wada sink down onto a pool of water, his body lifeless and limb, his eyes staring right at him as the last shred of life vanished from his eyes.

Lea hurried up to Isa as he put his gun away. He had expected to feel something for doing this, he had expected to feel instant remorse, disgust and guilt for shooting down the man he had worked with and had been around for as long as he could remember, but there was nothing. This had to be done. He knew that he could live with this, as awful as it may sound, but he wasn't sure Isa could.

"Hey," Lea knelt down in front of Isa, blocking the view of the murdered man behind him. He took Isa's gun and put it away while he looked at Isa with a gentle smile, "This didn't happen, okay? Isa, look at me. This had nothing to do with you. C'mon, let's get you home. Your mom needs you to be okay. You have to be okay."

In hindsight he should've noticed that there was something much more wrong with Isa than he dared to believe, that empty look in Isa's eyes when Lea mentioned his mother should have tipped him off, but all he wanted was to get Isa away from there.

Isa let Lea lead him back home and on the way there, Lea thought that maybe the damage done had been minimal, maybe things could only turn for the better from now on, but as they approached the front door Isa pulled away from Lea with a disgusted sound at the back of his throat. He didn't look back; he ran into the safety of his own home and left Lea in the rain.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

The bed creaked when Axel put Saïx onto it as gently as he could. Kairi stopped by the doorway and watched his every move, which was unnerving because he didn't want to worry her. Saïx was heavier than he should have been if he was asleep. Not knowing what was making Saïx like this had his chest tied in a knot. He slid his hand over Saïx's neck and stopped to find a pulse, trying not to sigh in relief when he found a steady beat.

"He sleeps as deeply as you do."

Axel nodded absentmindedly and tried to think of any substance that would take this long to kick in, but he came out with nothing. He could only blame that strange underground lab and Ansem and his experiments.

"What are you doing up so early?"

Su-mi walked up behind Kairi, her eyes slightly open as they were still heavy with sleep. She put her robe tighter around herself and shivered slightly.

"They had a fight," Kairi said with a shrug.

"We didn't have a fight," he said to Kairi with a sigh, and turned to Su-mi, "We didn't have a fight. It's... complicated."

Su-mi walked passed Kairi, stopping by the side of the bed, and taking a concerned look at Saïx. Axel could see that she suspected that something was wrong, and with what he had seen of Su-mi he felt that he could calmly say that she would meddle whether it was her business or not.

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's just asleep. Heavy sleeper." Axel scratched the back of his neck and looked away to not have to look Su-mi in the eye, "Just like me."

"He doesn't look that fine to me. I can call a doctor for you just to make sure. He's really reliable and discreet."

"No, Su-mi. That's really not necessary. He just has to sleep it off. Honest, if I thought that a visit to the doctor would clear this up, I'd be at the emergency room and not here."

Su-mi didn't seem to be paying attention, or maybe she was ignoring Axel on purpose. She turned back to Kairi with that certain look of a mother who knew that she was doing the right thing by following her instinct.

"Kairi, fetch my phone book and look up Dr. Even. I hope he still has the same number to his practice, but either way, it's worth a shot."

Kairi hurried out of the room and disappeared down the stairs as Axel looked like he was about to pop a vein by the name he had just heard Su-mi say.

"Doctor what now? Dr. Even? Blond, tall, high cheekbones and the eyes of a mad scientist Dr. Even? That man doesn't come within a five mile radius with Saïx like this."

"You know Dr. Even?"

"I'm surprised that you know of him, and even more surprised that you would recommend him to anyone! He's a bad man, Su-mi. He works for the yakuza and is up to all kinds of weird stuff."

"You cannot be talking about the same Dr. Even then. The Dr. Even I know is a well-respected doctor with close ties to the German professor Ansem."

Axel ran his fingers through his hair in complete disbelief. The world couldn't be this small. They lived in a country with over 127 million people and it just wasn't possible for them to run into people who knew the exact same people that had put them in this situation.

"You're not calling that doctor, Su-mi, and that's the end of it."

He didn't want to call it a twist of faith or anything of that nature, but there was no denying the chill that ran down his back as he looked past Su-mi. Just as he ended that sentence, he caught a glimpse of one of the few family pictures Su-mi had laying around. This had to be some insane, sick joke on someone's part. Stuff like this didn't happen in real life. Situations didn't fit together like some intricate puzzle that had to be solved.

Life was made out of a long series of coincidences, that's what Axel believed and wanted to keep believing, but his view on the world was ever changing and he did not like where it was going.

"Who is that on the picture?"

He walked up to the frame and took it to show Su-mi the blue-haired girl on the picture. He pointed at it and saw his hands tremble as he assimilated this picture with the woman he had seen on that tape.

"That's my daughter. Aqua."

"Where is she now?"

Su-mi smiled sadly and ran her arms around herself as if the thought of her daughter left her cold, "She's not with us anymore. She went to a better place."

"I'm sorry." Axel paused, "When did she pass away?"

"Oh, that is such a difficult question to answer. She had been ill for quite a while before I had her institutionalized. I guess, in a way, I lost her long before she actually died."

"How old was she?"

"She had just turned twenty. It was such a shame. She had always been such a wonderful girl, but her life was cut too short."

Axel didn't want to seem insensitive, but he was starting to get really impatient. He forced himself to give her a sympathetic smile while he shifted his weight from one foot to another. Twenty was too young. The woman he had seen on that tape was older than twenty, but he couldn't tell Su-mi that, and he couldn't really think of a tactful way of asking her if she was certain.

"Her hair, was it this short when she passed away?"

On the picture she had short and neat hair, gently brushed behind her ear. She was sitting on a chair in the small front yard of this house with a sweet smile on her face.

Su-mi seemed slightly confused by the question and she shrugged as she shook her head slowly, although she knew the answer to it once she thought about it.

"Yes. She always preferred to keep her hair short. It was perfect for the warm summers here, she always said. Why, Axel? Why are you asking me so many questions about her?"

His head was spinning. He was further in over his head than he had ever imagined and it only kept getting more and more complicated. Su-mi followed him out of the room and sat down next to him on the couch. She watched him eagerly, awaitingthe answers she feltshe was entitled to.

"I..." Axel rested his head against his hands, "I promise that I will tell you everything I know, but first I need you to tell me a little about her. About Aqua. Deal?"

Su-mi nodded slowly.

Kairi hurried up the stairs and reached Su-mi her phone book, but Su-mi smiled at her and shook her head, "Kairi, honey, we won't be calling Dr. Even. It's late, you should go to bed. I'll take care of our guests."

"But I'm not tired."

"Kairi, please. Go to bed. We're having a grown-up talk."

Kairi pouted and turned to Axel, "Will you still be here when I wake up?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Tell you what, I'll wake you up before I go if you're still asleep then, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Yeah."

Kairi walked back to her room and closed the door behind her gently to not wake Saïx. Su-mi looked after her and made sure that she wasn't eavesdropping by leaving the door ajar.

"You said that she was ill and that you had her institutionalized. Where did you institutionalize her?"

"At Tsuchiyama, outside of Kobe."

"Why Kobe when you live in Kyoto?"

"Because that's where Doctor Even worked. He used to have a practice here before, but when he moved I thought it would better for Aqua to be near someone she had already gotten to know. I did a lot of research before I sent her there. Dr. Even said that he wouldn't be working alone and that he could get professor Ansem interested in her case."

Axel reached for a pen and the block of post-it's on the table. He would need to write this down to not forget half of what Su-mi was saying. He didn't know if anything of what she would say would be out of importance for them, but he couldn't risk not putting it down on paper.

"Why would that be a good thing?"

"Because professor Ansem had done a lot of research on memories in relation to trauma, he even – "

"Wait," Axel interrupted, "Why would that be of interest?"

Su-mi looked away, biting her lip gently much like Kairi did when she felt distressed. She fiddled with her robe and looked back at Axel slowly, while collecting her thoughts in a manner that would be comprehensible for her to share with someone she barely knew.

"She went overseas when she turned eighteen. She wanted to broaden her horizons and live a more independent life than she felt she could get here. It was supposed to help her in her life, not destroy her." Su-mi's lips quivered and she paused to compose herself. "There was a boy down the street; he had been friends with Aqua since ever. He always protected her and looked after her. He went with her…"

"What's his name?"

"Terra. His name was Terra. He... died when they were overseas."

"How?" Axel was so into what he was writing that he was no longer aware of how insensitive his questions could be perceived, andSu-mi seemed so distraught by her memories that she failed to notice Axel's lack of emotional response to what she was telling him.

"I don't know. All I know is that he died and that Aqua was never the same again. She started sleepwalking, she had nightmares, and sometimes she even forgot where she was. And then she started hallucinating... She said that Terra came by to visit her – and I just..."

Axel finished writing his notes and sighed. He wasn't sure what to do with this information, it didn't seem like it could help him figure out what he was supposed to do to get rid of his marking. It was a sad story, sure, but there was nothing that could explain why Naminé had seen it necessary to show him that tape and then say Saïx's name.

The phone suddenly rang and startled them both. Su-mi reached for it and answered it quietly. Axel could only make out mumblings from the other side of the line and he leaned back into the couch and rubbed his eyes. There had to be something he could do, there had to be something that he had missed. He was about to reach for the little yellow book in his pouch when Su-mi held out the phone to him.

"It's for you."

Axel must have looked dumbfounded because Su-mi took his hand and made him hold the phone himself before she got off the couch and left him so that he could speak in private with whoever knew of his whereabouts.

"Hello?" He asked carefully, not sure what to expect.

"Axel? It's Dr. Even."

"How did you know I was here?" He tensed and frowned as he got up from the couch, sneaking up to the nearest kitchen window.

"You're an idiot," Dr. Even said matter-of-factly, but there was a hint of worry in his voice. "You set off the siren and the sensors in each and every one of Ansem's lab caught up on it. Xemnas knows exactly where you are and his men are gathering to make the final move. Yet you're sitting there drinking tea with the old lady?"

"Fuck..." Axel breathed and gulped, "How long ago did they leave?"

"They left on the helicopter from Kobe just now. If I were you, I'd put my cup down and run for the hills." Dr. Even paused and cleared his throat softly, "How is Saïx?"

"Why? He's fine. Perfectly fine. Shouldn't he be?"

"You should hurry, Axel. The wolves are breathing down your neck and you're not fit to handle them in the state they're in now."

"Why are you helping us?" Axel stopped by the doorway into the room where Saïx was fast asleep.

"Helping?" Dr. Even sounded surprised, "No, Axel. I'm not helping, I'm just protecting my own interests."

The line went dead and Axel gave the phone a foul glare before he put it onto the boudoir right by the door and hurried up to Saïx. This was ridiculous. In a few minutes he would have a helicopter filled with gangsters chasing him down the street like it was some stupid action-movie, and he wasn't sure why anymore.

This was more than taking back what he had stolen. This wasn't a classic act of revenge, and the amount of time and effort Xemnas was spending on getting them back was seriously freaking him out, he was feeling like there was something important that he had missed or forgotten that would be the answer to all of this.

As he was pushing Saïx up his back, Su-mi appeared by the doorway with a strangely understanding look on her face.

"Are you leaving?"

"Yeah."

"What did Dr. Even say?"

"That we had to leave."

Su-mi sighed and moved away from the doorway as Axel walked out and down the stairs. She followed him to the hallway and stopped at her front door.

"Axel, Ansem was a goodhearted scientist with a Messiah-complex. Whatever he is testing you for will only make you better."

Axel hurried out of the small garden and down the street. He didn't have time for cryptic clues that only confused him more than he already was. He jogged the last bit to the car and took out the car keys that he had taken from Saïx before getting out of the house. He unlocked the door to the passenger seat and sat Saïx down carefully, and put the seat belt on him.

They were almost back on the highway when he heard a helicopter fly above them and slowly disappear off into the distance.


	12. Of Donkeys and Men

************Title:******** ****Last Train**********  
><strong>Author:<strong> **********nikki_ntm**********  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **********Shattered Apocalypse**********  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> **********12/20**********  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ******Drama/Adventure/Suspense******  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**** **M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**********  
><strong>Characters:<strong>****** ****Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**********  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ******Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**********  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **********Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x  
><strong>

**Chapter 12: Of Donkeys and Men**

Axel shook his soda to chip the ice while he looked at the map he had balancing on the wheel. He had stopped by a rest stop for a quick leak, but he had been drawn in by their multicolored slushies'. By the looks of it they were heading north, to the city Echizen. He wished that he had stayed on the national roads instead of going on the expressway, since Lake Biwa was to his far left. At least it was a comfort that they would be passing by Tsuruga Bay before turning towards the city Axel had deemed secure enough.

According to the pamphlet he had taken from the diner, Echizen had been the home of Murasaki Shikibu – the author of _The Tale of Genji_. He remembered it vaguely from elementary school. Even as a prince, Genji had to struggle for his place in society, Axel remembered his teacher saying, but the only thing his classmates had taken away from it was the amount of women Genji slept around with.

He chuckled quietly, and threw the pamphlet onto the backseat, slurping the last of his soda as he took another look on the map to make sure that he knew where to turn to end up by Tsuruga Bay.

"Can't you do anything in silence?" Saïx mumbled, stretching his legs as far as the small space would let him.

"You're awake…"

"Of course I'm awake! Who wouldn't be with you slurping for half an hour? Just go and buy another one."

He couldn't believe the relief he felt at hearing Saïx talk and seeing him move. It had almost been two days since they left Kyoto and this was the first time Saïx had awakened since. The helicopter that Xemnas had sent after them had circled around the area and to shake them off Axel had to drive around and stop at the wee hours of the night to fill up the tank.

In those two days Axel had made it a habit to check his pulse every other half hour just to be certain that Saïx was still alive, at times he had hoped for an annoyed mumble or a slight twitch in his sleep, but this was much better.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by a car."

Axel frowned and folded the map up and put it in the backseat with the pamphlet, "You want an aspirin or something? I can go and buy some."

"I'm hungry."

"Yeah? There's a diner over there. You up for a walk or do you want some to go?"

"Let's go to the diner."

Saïx stepped out of the car and narrowed his eyes when the sunlight hit him in the face. The rest stop had cherry trees around the diner and the green grass around the parking lot was in the brightest shade of green. He covered his eyes and was about to lean against the car behind him when Axel put an arm around him and led him forward gently.

Axel sat across from Saïx in a small booth in a secluded corner, and watched him sigh as he leaned back and closed his eyes briefly to make the room stop spinning.

"You look like shit."

"Thank you for that input, Axel."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I said that I felt like I was hit by a car, you're the only one interpreting that as 'being okay'."

Axel took the small envelope on the table with all of the diner's specials and he looked at them to see what he would like to eat when a young waitress walked up to them with a smile.

"Hello, welcome to Hokuriku Diner. Have you decided for anything?"

"Um..." Axel turned on the envelope, "I'll have a burger with fries. Make it the biggest burger you have, and don't go easy on the fries. I'll have a coke with that, lots of ice. Thanks."

The waitress wrote down Axel's order and then turned to Saïx, "And you, sir?"

"I'll have what he's having but just the salad. And a glass of water, normal water not fuzzy, and two aspirins."

"Okay, I'll be right back with your orders."

"Thank you," Axel said and turned to Saïx slowly, "I thought you said that you were hungry."

"I was until I heard you order."

"I'll have you know that I haven't eaten since we left Kyoto. You had me worried sick."

"Not sick enough, apparently. I can still hear you slurping."

Axel leaned back in his seat and sighed. Saïx seemed well enough to slag him off at least, he could settle with that for now. He was too hungry and too relieved to be talking back. Besides, there were other important things to be talking about right now. Axel reached for the little yellow notebook in his pouch and leaned forward while Saïx gave him a bored look.

"I've been looking through it and I think I know what this is now."

"Go on."

"It's really messed up if you think about it. Ansem was leading a project on memories. I was told that he wanted to be able to store memories, kind of like files, but according to these notes it was just the first step to what he wanted to achieve. By materializing the memories he could either create or delete a person from someone else's memory."

"Why not just knock them over their heads? It's easier, more effective, and cheap."

"I thought you'd be fascinated by this." Axel flipped the notebook open and looked at the pictures.

"I'm sure I will be once I get to eat something."

"This must be what she meant by deleting me. That's gotta be the punishment if I don't figure out what she wants."

"Who?"

"The hologram."

"I've never seen her."

"Be happy for that. She's like those kids in horror movies, shows up when you least expect it and in the creepiest places too. Like back in Kyoto in that freaky house..." Axel paused and scratched his arms absentmindedly, "I wanted to talk to you about that actually."

"About what?"

"About the lab."

"What lab?"

"The one in that freaky house in Kyoto. You went all crazy, remember? You saw an armadillo while you took a walk and you wondered if it had died?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The young waitress came back, balancing a large tray with both Axel's and Saïx's orders. She put down Axel's coke and Saïx's water with the two aspirins before she reached for the plates.

"Is this the biggest burger you have?" Axel asked as he eyed the Happy Meal-sized burger with distaste.

"It is. Would you like me to bring you another one?"

"Yes, go and bring him another one. I'll be taking this." Saïx reached for the small burger and took a bite of it, looking strangely satisfied.

"Make that two." Axel added.

"And bring some more fries," Saïx said between his chewing. He reached for a fry on Axel's plate and dipped it in ketchup before he took a bite. "Crunchy."

Axel watched amazed as Saïx ate like Axel hadn't seen him do in years. The burger disappeared in a matter of seconds and he reached for Axel's coke to clear his mouth.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm eating."

"Yeah, but... this is vile food according to you."

"It looked good now. Are you saving the Béarnaise for the burgers?"

"No. You gonna eat that salad?" Axel teased, thinking that it would make Saïx ease down, but he simply shook his head and took another sip of the Coke.

"No, you can have it. Knock yourself out."

The waitress came back with two more burgers and more fries. She didn't seem used to customers ordering this much and maybe she was worried that they would dine and dash. They didn't quite look like they had the funds to be ordering without restraint.

"That'll be 2130 yen," she said with a smile as she reached them a receipt.

"Where's the men's room?"

"It's down that hallway." The waitress pointed to where the bathroom was and frowned slightly, "Sir, are you okay?"

"Yeah..." Saïx had suddenly lost all resemblance of color as he got out of the booth and hurried to the bathroom. Axel looked after him and pulled out 3000 yen on the table and smiled at the waitress.

"Back in a flash." He hurried after Saïx. The men's room was quite big, it had three small booths, four urinals and a long sink.

Saïx had gone into the booth closest to the door. The sound of the radio coming through the speakers in each corner masked the sounds of Saïx vomiting all the food he had eaten just now.

Axel ran his fingers through his hair as he paced down the men's room. This wasn't good. It felt strange to be so on edge and to nearly panic as soon as Saïx did anything that could be odd, but when he dreamed of his death every night, he had to be on his guard.

He stopped when he heard Saïx fiddle with the lock and open the door.

"What happened?"

Saïx gripped the side of the door tightly as he took a deep breath and he closed his eyes. The noise from the radio seemed to disorient him, but he shook it off. Axel followed him as Saïx washed his hands in the sink and rinsed his mouth with water before washing his facee, almost waiting for him to fall over.

"I ate too fast."

"Let's get you to a hospital. You've been weird lately and I think we should have it checked out to make sure it's nothing serious."

"It's not something serious. I just ate too fast. Let's get back out there before that girl gets the same stupid idea and gets us into trouble."

Always as stubborn as a donkey. Axel was certain that something was wrong, Saïx negating it only made him more certain of it and he didn't know how to convince him that it was in his best interest to be in good health. He wasn't sure that Saïx believed that his dreams were of any importance, and maybe that's where the problem was. To Saïx, they were still playing tag with their brothers.

The waitress was busy with some other customers on the other side of the room, much to Saïx's relief, but she kept a close eye on them when she saw them walk back out.

Axel took the change the waitress had put on a small plate on their table and sighed. Saïx didn't look like he wanted to be facing food right now, but Axel hadn't eaten anything yet so he went for his burger.

"Can we go?"

"You still feel sick?"

"I just don't want to be here."

The waitress walked up to them, still looking worried.

"Sir, how are you feeling? Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"No, he's fine." Axel interjected, "He's just feeling roadsick, he's not good with curves on the road. Can you pack this up, we're gonna take it with us and you wouldn't know of... some discreet clinic, would you?"

He was ready to laugh it off in case the girl got scared of what he was saying, but she fell into thought and asked them to wait for a bit. That would earn her quite the tip. Axel turned back to Saïx, fidgeting where he sat.

"Where does it hurt?"

"Nowhere. I'm fine."

"Could you stop being an idiot and just tell me where the hell it hurts," Axel hissed with a quick glance at the customers who were too preoccupied with their own conversation. "You're not fine! You – ...fuck."

He quickly reached for a few napkins and put them against Saïx's nose. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes with an annoyed mumble. The waitress came running back with a small notepad and a phone.

"What happened?"

"He's having a nosebleed. Is that the phone number to a clinic?"

"No, it's a phone agent who can tell you where you need to go. He's really reliable and he knows of all hospitals in Japan. You should call now; your friend doesn't look too good."

"Thank you."

The waitress walked back to the counter and left Axel to do the phone call. On the second call a man picked up.

"_Kunsel's Ask Me What You Will Agency, how can I be of assistance?"_

"Hi, um, I'm at a rest stop on the Hokuriku Expressway and I'm on my way to Echizen. I need to know where to find a clinic that's discreet and reliable."

"_Ah, yes. You're an hour away from Echizen's city core and you're currently at Hokuriku Diner. At the Echizen City Office go left and drive up to road 365 and once you're in Hatta drive up north to Uwano. In Uwano take road 187 to Saso. The clinic is on Korogikai. It's got free parking space and a cafeteria. Did you get all that?"_

Axel finished writing the last of the directions and gave a slight nod, "Yeah, got it. Thanks a bunch."

"_No problem. Tell your friends about me!"_

Axel hung up and put the note in his pocket, quickly taking a glimpse at Saïx.

"C'mon, let's go." He went to his side and helped him up. The waitress walked up to them again when she saw that they were leaving.

"Aren't you going to take the food with you?"

"No, we're fine. Thanks for the help."

Saïx was pale and feverish by the time they drove away from the diner and towards Echizen. There would be no time to stop and admire the view over Tsuruga Bay. Next time, Axel thought as he sped up.

**~ooo~**

The clinic was nothing like he had imagined it would be. He had imagined a crumbling building deep within an alleyway, flickering lights, trashy chairs, a thick smell of hospital and yellow walls, but this clinic could be one of the prettiest clinics he had ever been to – nothing like that so called free clinic in Kobe where Saïx's mother had been hospitalized.

He looked at the form he had been given and tried to fill it without telling too much. Saïx's nose had stopped bleeding, but he had a faint mark of red on the lower part of his face and he still looked pale.

"Are you allergic to anything?"

"Stupid questions."

Axel ticked over the square for no and glimpsed at all the other million questions they wanted answered. He got up from his seat and walked up to the reception and gave the form to the nurse that he had spoken to earlier. She took the form and looked it through with a slight frown.

"You haven't even written his last name," she said.

"We're here incognito. All we need is a quick check-up with a trustworthy doctor, can you make that happen?"

He was leering at her dangerously, and the nurse held the form closer to her, as if that would shield her from anything.

"Yes, of course, sir."

"Great." He flashed her a quick smile before he sat back down next to Saïx and looked at him, ""The doctor should be attending to you soon."

"I'm fine now. Let's just go."

"Absolutely not. Look, I know that you're not a big fan of hospitals, but this is going to happen whether you like it or not, so deal with it." Axel crossed his arms and gave him a determinate look.

"No need to sugar coat it for me, jerk. I'm sick you know."

"You just said that you were fine."

"When have you ever listened to me?"

There was no point arguing with him. They were in a waiting room with sick people and the last thing they wanted was to hear Axel and Saïx argue about nothing. Axel sighed and reached for a pamphlet that lay on the coffee table in front of him.

"_Make yourself understood in your own language – Independent Interpreter's Agency of Japan"_

It was filled with pictures of people looking professional and smart, like they had all the answers to the problems of the world. The clinic was apparently affiliated with this agency and offered their non-native patients care in their own language. Axel felt rather dumbfounded as he continued reading, skipping some difficult kanji. They were offering quite a service here, and it was seemingly free of charge. What kind of underground stuff could be going on here?

Maybe he could make use of this. There was a third part in the little yellow notebook that he had yet to understand, mainly because the entries were either in German or English. He couldn't do it before they examined Saïx though, or they might end up with an interpreter talking to them in German and then they'd really be in trouble.

A strong-built doctor with pitch-black hair walked into the waiting room, holding a pad and reading off the form on it with a questioning look. He scratched his cheek and looked out over the room.

"Morpheus?"

Axel nudged Saïx and helped him up, "C'mon, that's you."

The doctor bowed his head lightly and took a quick look at Saïx that still seemed rather dizzy where he stood with Axel holding him up, "Can you walk? Do you want a wheelchair?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Alright, examination room 4."

They walked down a clean hallway and entered examination room 4 where there was a stretcher, a computer, chairs and a lot of other expensive machinery. Axel gulped as he took in the sights and reluctantly let Saïx sit down on the chair in front of the doctor.

"Um, do you know of a Dr. Ansem or Dr. Even?"

"No, I don't. I usually leave before the night shift gets in. Are they your regular doctors?"

"What? No. This is our first time here. I just wanted to know if you knew them."

"Alright. I'm Dr. Fair, and I can tell that you don't feel all that well," he paused and smiled, waiting for a reaction to his spontaneous rhyme, but received nothing but a stoic look back.

"Right, do you have a fever?" He got out of his chair and knelt in front of Saïx to put his hand on his forehead, but there was no fever. "Can you sit over here?"

He led Saïx to the stretcher and sat down on a stool in front of him, he pulled a trolley closer to him and reached for a flashlight and a stick. "Open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue. Have you been feeling nauseous?"

Saïx nodded.

"Have you vomited? Fainted?" Dr. Fair threw the stick into the bin and stood up to feel on Saïx's neck.

"I've vomited, but I haven't fainted."

"Actually he did faint. The other day, on Tuesday night he fainted. He got out of it recently."

"How recently?"

"Couple of hours."

"Mm-hmm."

Dr. Fair walked over to an intercom by the door and pushed a button, "Cloud, could you come in for a consult?"

"_Yeah, sure. I'll be there in a sec."_

"What's wrong, doctor?" His mouth was going dry and his gaze wandered from Saïx to the doctor. Dr. Fair had just opened his mouth to answer when a blond doctor walked into the room.

"What's up?"

"Could you take him outside? I need a few minutes."

"No problem. Sir, could you come with me, please?"

Axel was just about to protest when he caught the look in Saïx's tired eyes, "Just go, I'll manage."

Dr. Fair closed the door behind them and hurried back to Saïx with a kind smile as he dug into his pocket for that small flashlight.

"I'm going to shine this into your eyes. Look at me."

Saïx did as he was told and looked at Dr. Fair as the doctor frowned slightly at what he saw.

"What's your eye color?"

"You tell me, you're the one looking at them."

"Your real eye color, I mean."

Dr. Fair put the flashlight away with a small sigh, "You have a discoloration in your eyes. It's called heterochromia, and it can be caused by a variety of things, but judging by your symptoms I have to ask, have you suffered any head trauma recently?"

"No."

"Are you sure? I suspect that you may have a concussion, I'll have to take you to X-ray to confirm, but I'm almost certain that it is a concussion. Did someone hit you? Were you in a fight?"

"Can't you just fix me up and let me go?"

"I could, but that would weigh on my conscience. You don't have to choose a path of crime, you know. There's a lot of help out there if you feel like you're stuck in a vicious circle. There's a church in Uwano that helps people get back on track without selling the religious stuff. It's quite difficult to get a spot, but I could write you a recommendation letter."

"Why do you think I'm a criminal?"

"I saw the tattoo. Was it done in the traditional way?"

"Yeah."

"It must've hurt. It looks like it's quite a big one too."

"I've been through worse."

"I'm sure you have. No need to take it to the next level, right?"

Saïx simply nodded. It wasn't like the doctor could understand. He didn't know of Saïx's responsibilities or how far into the world of crime he had fallen, and he didn't expect the doctor to understand either. It was what it was.

"Why did you send him out? Do you think he hit me?"

"Did he?"

"Would it matter?"

Dr. Fair chuckled, "You ask a lot of questions."

"So do you."

"Look, if he did hit you, you should notify the police. They are here to help, much like I am."

"Well, Dr. Fair, you're not helping me now. You're annoying me. I'll stay for the X-ray and thank you for your services, but that is it."

"Alright, I can live with that. You want me to call your friend back?"

"No, and I don't want you to tell him about the concussion either."

"Why not? If he didn't hit you and you're travelling together, he should be told that you need lots of rest and maybe even stay for observation if you do have a concussion."

"I don't want him to know. Isn't that enough?"

Dr. Fair's expression darkened, he did clearly not agree with Saïx's decision, but he could do nothing but to go along with it. He held up to the door and watched Saïx walk stubbornly although his world was clearly spinning. It was sad to say that he wasn't the only one who chose to stay on the path of crime rather than to change his view on the world and accept the second chance that could be given to him.

**~ooo~**

"Am I under arrest or something?"

Dr. Cloud Strife looked up from the notepad he was holding and uncrossed his legs as he glared the man in his custody.

"I'm a doctor, Axel. Not a cop."

"So I could go if I wanted?"

"Yeah, but not into the examination room."

"Why?"

"Because Dr. Fair is conducting an examination on your friend."

"What kind of examination?"

"The kind that will help him figure out what is wrong with your friend."

"Mind to go into the details?"

Axel crossed his arms, his brow furrowed with suspicion. He had very little trust for doctors in general, especially if they started to act as dodgy as this Dr. Fair. He glanced at the door and tried to figure out how quick the doctor could react, maybe he could make a run for it?

"I don't know, Axel. It depends on what symptoms he has, his medical history. You're here to not get in the way and so that Morpheus can answer whatever questions Dr. Fair may have in peace, without any pressure from you."

"His name is Saïx actually."

"Yeah, that sounds just about as believable as Morpheus."

"Well, actually it's Isa, but he'll crack your head open if you call him that. He prefers to be called Saïx."

"Right."

The doctor didn't seem to be dangerous. He worked at a free-clinic after all, and he hadn't threatened to call the police if Axel left to check on Saïx. Maybe he was someone trustworthy? Axel wanted to play with that thought. What if they had encountered people that could actually help them, no strings attached? They didn't have to know the entire story, just bits and pieces, enough to want to help them.

"Do you know of a Dr. Ansem or Dr. Even?"

Dr. Strife fell into thought and repeated the names under his breath, "Um, there was a family with the last name Van Ansem in my neighborhood when I was little, but I don't think that anyone was a doctor. Why? Do they work here?"

"Where did you grow up?"

"München, Germany."

"Figures, you don't look very Japanese."

"Neither do you. Where did you grow up? I doubt it was in..." Dr. Strife looked at the notepad and read the address that Axel had written on the form he had left at the reception earlier, "...Calcutta? Really?"

"I'm from Kobe," he said with a sheepish smile.

"Were your parents born abroad?"

"No. Well, not my mom, she's Japanese. My dad was an Irish sailor."

"Yeah? Where do you live now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said you were from Kobe, that's at least four hours from here by car. Did you come here for the free-clinic alone or do you live nearby?"

"Oh." Axel scratched the back of his neck and looked down on the floor, "We're on a roadtrip. Figured we should get out while we're young and see Japan."

"Sounds great. Have you been in Echizen yet? There's a crab museum and a lot of old shrines."

"A crab museum?"

"Yeah, lots of crabs to look at. It's really pretty, but I usually get hungry when I go there."

"Who wouldn't?"

Dr. Strife smiled. His pager went off suddenly and he picked it out of his pocket and looked at it, "Seems like your friend is ready to go."

"Where do I pick him up?"

"Nowhere. They're coming here."

Axel sat up properly in his chair. He was still thinking of whether he should let this doctor read what the little yellow notebook said or not, but where could he find a German doctor who could do him this favor for free if not here?

"How is this place sustained?" Axel asked at last. He needed to know if he should be worried, he needed to know if there was any evidence that this free-clinic was sustained by blood money.

"What do you mean?"

"Who pays for all of this? Where does the money for all the equipment, machinery and staff come from?"

"Didn't you see the plaque on your way in? We have beneficiaries, or should I say one beneficiary. Rufus Shinra, he owns the cracker factory next door, so he lets us borrow this facility and he pays for most of the luxuries in here."

"Why?"

"Zack's and Rufus' fathers fought together in some war, so Rufus has always been ready to pay for whatever crazy idea Zack comes up with."

"Zack?"

"Dr. Fair, you met him earlier."

"Oh. Yeah, of course. A free-clinic next to a cracker factory. Must be really good crackers to afford all of this."

"It's what got me and Zack through med school. They only come in four flavors, sadly, but they've started to produce biscuits and other types of cookies, so yeah, buy their crackers and support our clinic."

There was a quick knock on the door before Dr. Fair opened it and stuck his head in, "Not interrupting, am I?"

"Not really, I was just marketing Rufus' cookies."

"Really? You sold any?"

"No, but the message is out there. When he sees 'Shinra's Crackalackin Crackers' he'll surely buy a bag or two."

Zack smiled and leaned against the door. Axel got up and tried to look past Dr. Fair's shoulder to see if Saïx was there, and Dr. Fair opened the door wider and revealed Saïx sitting in a wheelchair with a not so amused expression on his face.

"What happened? Why is he in a wheelchair?"

"Nothing to worry about, he's dizzy and I finally convinced him to use the wheelchair to not fall over and break something."

"Did you find out what was wrong with him?"

"Well, I concluded that he has a severe case of motion sickness, so I gave him some medicine for that and I also convinced him that you both should stay at our place for a couple of days. What do you say, Cloud?"

"As long as you do the dishes, I don't mind."

Axel looked astounded and slowly glanced at Saïx from the corner of his eye. It didn't seem like Dr. Fair, or Zack, was making things up – had Saïx seriously agreed to stay at a stranger's house? Or were they even strangers to each other? It wouldn't surprise him at all if Dr. Fair turned out to be one of Ansem's many assistants.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Axel said and both Zack and Cloud stopped talking and turned their attention to Axel, "I mean, we don't wanna impose, and we have places to be, so... thanks for everything, but we'll manage from now on."

"Don't worry about it. We have lots of room and Saïx shouldn't be going anywhere by car right now. His motion sickness might last for days and I would like to keep him under observation, and instead of having you both here at a hospital, I thought it would be better to invite you home."

He didn't like the meaningful look in Zack's eyes, he didn't like that polite smile and he didn't like to think that maybe Saïx had a plan to go with this invitation, but he had no choice but to suck it up and return that polite smile he wished he could wipe off from the doctor's smug face.


	13. Lying Through Your Teeth

**************Title:******** ******Last Train************  
><strong>Author:<strong> ************nikki_ntm************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ************Shattered Apocalypse************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ************13/20************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ********Drama/Adventure/Suspense********  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**** ****M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ********Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**A/N:** Hi there, readers! I want to let you all know that I might not update as frequently as I have up until now after next week. I'll try to at least update every other week, but I make no promises. I also want to thank you, reviewers as well as readers, for your continuous support, and as always, I hope you're enjoying the story ^^

**x**

**Chapter 13: Lying Through Your Teeth**

Zack hadn't lied when he said that they had lots of space. The house was located right by a lonely road, not too far away from the hospital. The house looked quite Japanese from the outside with its tilted roofs, black and white exterior and paper-door windows. At first Axel thought that it would be a bit like Yuna's house, but the inside was much more modern. They had a big kitchen/dining room, the living room was quite spacious and modernly furnished as well. It seemed that it paid off being a doctor at a free-clinic that was sponsored by a cracker factory.

Fortunately for Axel, the floor was new as well, it didn't squeak when he walked down the hallway on the second floor from his room at the far end to Saïx's room that was closer to the stairway. The evening had felt weird, Axel had been tense and wasn't sure what to expect from these two doctors.

He hadn't been able to speak to Saïx in peace either, and it bothered him that Saïx had seemed so amused by it because Zack always interrupted him by remembering something that would be fun to show them.

It was past midnight and since he couldn't sleep, he figured that he should take the opportunity to talk to Saïx now that no one could interrupt. He walked up close to the door and knocked gently, looking down the hallway to make sure that no one was there.

"Saïx, it's me," he whispered and waited for a reply, "I'm coming in."

He pushed the door open and walked into the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Saïx sat up in his bed and leaned against the wall behind him as he rubbed his eyes.

"What do you want?"

Axel took the small stool in the corner to his right and walked over to Saïx, sitting down on it with a sigh.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better."

"Good. That's…good."

Saïx eyed him from where he sat, chuckling and closing his eyes, "What is it?"

"I want to know what you're getting at, why are we here?"

"Didn't you hear? I have a serious case of motion sickness; I would've thrown up all over the car if we had kept going. And Zack gave me an ultimatum; either I accepted the invitation or he called the police."

"What for?"

"He thinks you're hitting me."

"What!" Axel had to remind himself that he better keep his voice low, "Why the hell does he think that? Is that what you told him?"

"How should I know? It doesn't even matter if it's true, it would be his word against yours. I did you favor by accepting the invitation. Now you have time to ask the blond doctor about the parts of the book that are in German."

"Yeah, well, I still don't like that Zack-guy's attitude, acting all high and mighty. He doesn't even know what's going on."

"It kind of reminds me of someone."

"An asshole, that's what." Axel crossed his arms and sighed. The nerve of some people, he thought, judgmental too. Zack had barely looked at him and yet he had decided that Axel was beating Saïx up – why ask when it was easier to jump to conclusions?

"Relax," Saïx mumbled as he accommodated himself in his bed, sinking his head against the soft pillow, "He's just the kind of guy that likes to pick up strays, much like someone else I know."

"You better not be talking about me."

"Well, I am. Shut up and let me sleep. I took some pills a while ago and they're making me sleepy."

"You asked him what they were before taking them, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just go."

Axel hesitated and looked at the door and then back at Saïx. His arms fell to his side and he shook his leg impatiently.

"I was actually hoping that you'd let me sleep here. You know, for the nightmares and stuff." That hadn't sounded as needy as it did when he had said it in his head, but at least it was out there.

"Good grief. I think there's a futon in that closet over there." He pointed to the closet behind Axel that was built into the wall. He got up and pulled the door aside and saw a couple of towels, a futon, and slippers. He placed the futon next to Saïx's bed and crawled into it quietly.

The ceiling looked a lot like Yuna's ceiling, he noted as he rested his hands on his chest, and being here caused him a strange feeling, maybe a sense of déjà vu, and he didn't like it at all. Maybe he feared that Saïx was betraying him again or maybe he just didn't like how easy Saïx had folded for the invitation. He had never been one to trust a stranger so easily.

"Are you asleep yet?" He tilted his head slightly to catch a glimpse of Saïx.

"I'm trying."

He smiled at the slightly annoyed tone that was muffled by the pillow Saïx was currently cuddling up against, but he wasn't amused for long. With darkness came worry and anxiety, and even though he could see Saïx, even though he could hear him breathe softly, there was an insistent voice in the back of his head repeating, "But what if he's dead?"

Axel ran his fingers down the palm of Saïx's hand slowly, and he shivered at how cold they always were, and in the dark they seemed paler than usual. He found his steady pulse almost immediately, and he smiled again as reality triumphed over that nagging voice.

"Are you serious?" Saïx tapped his fingers against Axel's wrist lightly, but made no effort to pull his hand away.

"What?"

"Are you seriously taking my pulse?" His voice broke as he tried to stifle a chuckle.

It was weird, Axel thought as he felt Saïx shake with laughter at the ludicrous situation. He had almost forgotten that sound and how infectious it was. He couldn't remember the last time when he had laughed like this either, but the feeling wasn't complete, and for a split second he wished he could just pull away the pillow hiding Saïx from him just to see him smile again, but he settled with the sound of it and the feel of Saïx's hand in his.

"I might just be holding your hand, y'know," Axel said at last with a small yawn.

"Whatever."

He didn't succeed in sounding as indifferent as before, but maybe Axel wasn't paying as much attention as he should. It was difficult to concentrate when Saïx traced his fingers down his wrist, drawing the tattoos Axel had on his other arm as if he had memorized every single stroke.

"If something was wrong, if something was happening to you, you'd tell me, right?"

"Yeah."

"Promise?"

"Yes."

"No bullshit?"

"No bullshit."

Axel looked back at the ceiling again. He could only hope that Saïx was being honest. If history was anything to go by, chances were that Saïx was lying to him about something or everything right now.

**~ooo~**

Saïx had already gone downstairs when Axel woke up, and to him it was a bit weird that Saïx would go anywhere without at least giving him a heads up. He hurried out of the futon and down the stairs only to see Cloud sitting by the big dining table, drinking his coffee while he flipped through the newspaper.

He looked up at Axel when he heard him walk in and glance at the table where they had already eaten breakfast.

"You finally decided to wake up, huh? Are you hungry?"

"Where's Saïx?"

"He went back to the hospital with Zack. He wanted to check his blood sugar after breakfast. They should be back any second now. There's coffee over there, you want scrambled eggs?"

"No, I'm not hungry." Axel flopped down onto a chair and took another look at the items on the table. Had Saïx eaten breakfast? They did have a lot of things to choose from so maybe Saïx had found something that he liked.

Cloud watched his every move, Axel could feel his gaze burning through him. He looked up, already annoyed with this day and what it was turning into.

"He told me to tell you to not stress over it. It's just a visit to the doctor's. I know that Zack can be a little too much if you're not used to it, but his heart is in the right place."

"Did he tell you that he thinks I'm beating Saïx up?"

"He did."

"Did he tell you why?"

"No." Cloud leaned back in his chair, "I'm sure he had his reasons."

"Well, I'm sure we'll have a serious problem if he keeps taking Saïx away."

"You have a very co-dependent relationship with Saïx. Why is it so important that you know where he is all the time if you're on a road trip? Isn't the entire purpose of the trip to get out, see new places and meet new people?"

"What kind of doctor are you?" Axel asked after a brief moment of silence, "Are you a shrink?"

"Not yet." He got up from his chair and walked up to the coffee maker to pour himself another cup, "You didn't sleep in your own room."

"So?"

"Did Saïx ask you to sleep in his room or was that your decision?"

The questions were bordering on insulting and Axel could only stare at the back of the so called doctor with an incredulous look on his face. Maybe he should have said yes to breakfast after all, that would've at least given him an excuse not to talk.

"I asked – nicely – and he gave the green light."

Under any other circumstances Axel would have let his fists do the talking if it had been anyone else implying whatever it was Cloud was implying, but Cloud's calm voice and gentle demeanor threw him out of loop and just left him confused and unsure as to how to react.

"You come off as awfully dominant, Axel. Are you jealous?"

"Listen, doctor, I don't know what the hell you're getting at, or what Saïx has been telling you, but I am not jealous of him hanging out with Zack, alright? I just wanted to know where he was... you don't have to pick it apart to see stuff that isn't there."

He was feeling exposed and flustered; the AC in the house seemed to have stopped working because he suddenly felt uncomfortably warm.

"I meant, are you jealous of Saïx?"

"No. Jeez, can we please drop it? You're freaking me out." He shivered and crossed his arms as Cloud sat back down on his seat and picked up the newspaper. Axel reached for a toast that had gone cold already and buttered it. Cloud couldn't expect an answer if he had his mouth full, unless of course he was analyzing the way he ate a toast and concluded that he had all kinds of psychological issues.

"How good is your German?" Axel asked once he was finished with breakfast.

"Good."

"Good enough to translate it to Japanese?"

"It depends. Does the document you want translated demand a certain field of expertise?"

"I don't think so."

Cloud reached his hand out, "Let me see it."

"Okay, but the content might be a bit weird, just so you know." Axel gave Cloud the little yellow notebook and almost regretted it as soon as Cloud flipped through it. "I've marked the pages. They're the ones with the ears."

Cloud didn't say anything while he read it through, and he had the same calm expression as before, making Axel think that maybe there was nothing more of importance in that book. Maybe it had been a waste of time and that left him back on square one.

"What is this?" Cloud asked finally.

"What it is? It's – well, we met a couple of German backpackers on our way here and well, I'm trying to write a sci-fi novel and this guy said that he had an awesome idea that I could take my own spin on, so I told him to write it down in my notebook, but his Japanese wasn't that good so he wrote it down in German."

"And the English parts?"

"That...that was from the English guy we ran into a couple of cities later."

"Strange how two different people that you met on two separate occasions had such similar ideas. What's even weirder is that one idea continues on the other."

"Well, maybe the English guy knew some German and thought that it was a better idea than his so he continued on it. I just need to know what it says so that I can write on my sci-fi novel. That has been a lifelong dream of mine." Axel tried not to gulp, he tried to keep a firm look on Cloud, because he knew that he had the habit of always looking away when he lied, but he needed Cloud to buy his story and judging by the look on Cloud's face, he was far from selling it to him.

"You know what's even weirder than two strangers sharing identical ideas? A backpacking English man in Japan that knows how to read medieval German."

"Oh, but you know, now that I think about it, I met the English man first and then I ran into the German guy."

"I see."

"Yeah, you should hear all of the weird stuff that's happened to us while on the road. There are crazy people out there, I mean, they just come by the dozen. It's endless. It kind of makes me understand why the world works the way it does."

Cloud turned the page and showed the notebook to Axel, pointing at the page he wanted him to look at, "What language is this?"

"English," Axel answered quickly.

"And this?" Cloud turned the page and pointed at it.

"Medieval German, obviously."

"Obviously, huh? Well, at least you can recognize German when you see it. This language however, isn't English. It's Esperanto, it's a mix of different languages and has similarities to English amongst other languages. Axel, you suck at lying. So if you want me to tell you what this says, I want to know the truth."

Axel couldn't sit still anymore, he got up on his feet and started pacing, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. It had been a stupid idea to ask a doctor out of all people to translate that stupid book. He didn't even know why he had assumed that one of the languages had been English. How could a man that was dead still mess with him the way he was, anyway?

"Does it even matter? Maybe the guy pulled a prank on me, what do I know? Can you please just tell me what it says? It's just pointless crap anyway, to you at least. There's no conspiracy or hidden agenda here, just an aspiring author wanting some inspiration. That is all."

It was bothering to see Cloud calmly look at him, not convinced at all. For all Axel knew, they could have been talking for hours about how untrustworthy he was while eating warm toast. How else could he explain Cloud not believing him?

"Axel, I'm gonna let you in on a secret. You think you can keep it?"

"Is it a test? Like a shrink test?"

"No, it's an honest question. Can you or can you not keep the secret I'm about to tell you?"

It was clearly a test. Axel wasn't as stupid as to fall for such a simple trap, not when he had been forewarned. "No, I can't."

Cloud smiled and put the book down, "That's fine, I guess. At least you're being honest. Now I'll be honest with you. The notes in this book shouldn't be performed by anyone. I've heard of this research, about doctors trying to manipulate memories to change people. I always thought that it was some urban legend some college kid made up to scare his friends, but you know what worries me the most?" Cloud paused and stared sternly at Axel, "The fact that you have it. Last time I heard of this book, the Ingô-family was trying to get their hands on it."

"You sure get around despite being a doctor in a small town area like this one."

"What kind of mess have you gotten yourself into, Axel?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me what the notebook says. If you go back on your word, I'll have to kill you."

"Tell me what you're involved in and I'll tell you about the notes," Cloud said reassuringly, "But if I suspect that you're lying, I'll give you a run for your money."

"Brace yourself then, doctor. This might be the weirdest thing you'll ever hear."

**~ooo~**

Zack pushed the wheelchair off the paved road gently and stopped right by the entrance to his garden when he saw the mailman come on his bike. Saïx didn't say much, he was reclusive and careful with what he said around Zack. He claimed that he was okay and that Axel wasn't doing anything bad to him, but there was something, a hunch that told him that something fishy was going on here and he couldn't just let them go without figuring it out. Since he couldn't count on Saïx's help, he had asked Cloud to work his magic on Axel, get him to talk. He seemed to be the most nervous one out of the two.

Zack smiled as the mail man jumped off his bike and waved at him, "Dr. Fair! Good morning! I have some mail for you." He flipped through the mail in the basket on the back of his bike.

"How are you?" Zack asked as he took the mail the mailman had reached to him.

"I'm fine, thank you. My back doesn't hurt anymore thanks to you. I'm very grateful, Dr. Fair, without you I would have lost my job and that would've angered my wife. Who is this?" He looked at Saïx and bowed his head slightly.

"This a new patient of mine, he's –"

"Tanaka," Saïx finished for him and bowed his head slightly, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Mailman."

"It's nice to meet you. Whatever it is that you're suffering from, Dr. Fair will take care of it, I assure you." He smiled brightly and nodded in agreement with himself, "Well, I have to keep going, there are lots of people waiting for their mail. Have a good one, gentlemen!"

Zack waved after him as he took off on his bike and continued to the next house. It was always nice to meet old patients. He looked through the mail quickly to see if there was anything interesting.

"What a weird package," he mumbled as he looked at a big and thick envelope. "It's just addressed here, no name, no nothing. A secret admirer perhaps?" He pushed the wheelchair forward and kept a gentle pace all the way up to the door.

They heard mumbling come from the kitchen when they entered the hallway and Zack stopped to see if he could make anything out, but the mumblings weren't clear. He pushed Saïx into the kitchen and both Axel and Cloud looked up to greet them.

"What are you two whispering about?" Zack said as Saïx got out of the wheelchair and sat down across from Axel.

"Come here, you have to see this." Cloud sounded fascinated. Zack stood beside Cloud and looked at the small yellow notebook and tried to read what it said.

"My German is a bit rusty. What is it?"

"Remember that urban legend about doctors in underground labs researching on memories and how to manipulate them?"

"No. You're the only doctor I know who would even read about that stuff. Why? Did you find proof that there is such a thing? Or are we looking at pictures of Bigfoot? It would make perfect sense if he wrote was German."

Cloud grabbed Zack by the arm and excused himself as he dragged him into another room where he could explain what Axel had been trying to explain for the last hour.

"Did you get him to translate the third part?" Saïx looked at Axel who was deep in thought, "Axel?"

"Huh?"

"What did it say? Do we know what Ansem wants?"

"It doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't?"

"He regretted going through with the experiments. I don't – I really don't understand. He came this far, he came to the point where he could store memories, that's probably what Xemnas wanted me to steal that night, but when he gets to the practical part, the part where he can actually do something with this, he regrets it."

"But does it say why?"

"Yeah, here. It says..." Axel flipped through some loose paper until he found the note he was searching for and put it next to the yellow notebook, "It says: The experiments are wrongdoings. This is not how it's supposed to be, Man shouldn't play God when he cannot face the consequences." Axel paused to point out a certain part of the notes, "Then it gets really weird, he says: The False Memories were fragile and caused the subject to weaken. I cannot let him continue with this nonsense anymore. He can no longer be a part of my research. It ends here."

"That's it? He went through the trouble of writing this in gibberish for that?"

"That's the weird part, because after the entry in German he continues in Esperanto, but look at the writing."

"It's not the same."

"Exactly, it's not the same. You know whose handwriting that is?" Axel paused briefly, "It's Xemnas'." He reached for a small, folded post-it with some scribbling on it that they had found stuck to one of the pages in the book. It was signed with Xemnas' name. He put it next to the entry in Esperanto to let Saïx see the similarities, "Xemnas was the one who encouraged Ansem to continue with the research. He wanted to be able to control memories."

"What for?"

"That's what I don't understand. It doesn't make any sense. If Xemnas is the one who wanted to control the memories, why would Ansem be out after us? Especially since he allegedly regretted doing the experiments."

Saïx reached for the documents when Axel suddenly caught a glance of something moving by the kitchen island behind them. He looked up and felt his heart drop when he saw Naminé stand there, looking back at him with her big and innocent blue eyes, pointing at something on the counter. She disappeared when he got up from his chair and he shivered.

"What if it's just someone using Xemnas' name?"

"I don't think so..." Axel walked over to the counter and saw the mail that Zack brought in and the big envelope was the first one to catch his attention. "There's no name on it," he mumbled to himself. He tore the envelope open and pulled out the file in it.

"Axel, what the hell are you doing?" Saïx turned around just in time to see Axel flip the file open and lose whatever shred of color he had left. "That's what you get for opening other people's mail, especially doctors' mail. What is it? An image of scattered brain?"

Axel kept flipping through the file and saw pictures of the girl he had seen on that video, of Su-mi's daughter that had been institutionalized and put under the care of Dr. Even and Dr. Ansem. The file consisted of admission documents, tracks of injuries and what he assumed to be before-pictures of an accident that had occurred abroad.

_Delusional._

_Hallucinogens._

_Psychiatric ward. _

Su-mi had said nothing about an accident, but maybe this was when Terra died. Aqua survived the accident, he didn't. Axel knew he was jumping to conclusions, but he couldn't help it. His imagination was on overdrive and there were so many questions he wanted answered, but who should he direct them to?

"Yeah – pictures of operations and stuff. You'll just puke again if you see it." Axel closed the file and tried to smile at Saïx, "Could you take a look at page 31, I think there was a figure or some picture that could help us with this."

As Saïx turned around to flip through the notebook, Axel hid the file underneath his jumper. He threw the envelope into the bin and shuffled with his feet when he heard Zack and Cloud walk back into the kitchen. He had never been so happy for being paranoid, he had told Cloud the absolute necessary and he had left big chunks of it out. They clearly had some affiliation with Ansem; why else would this be sent to them?

They all gathered around the table and Cloud continued with the translation.

"There a three stages in the process: Introduction, Adaptation and Acceptance. Rejection usually occurs late in the phase of Introduction or early in the phase of Adaptation. It then goes into cryptic explanations of how the procedure is done. It makes little sense to me, so I'm gonna skip that part. Here's a headline that says 'Rejection'." Cloud pointed at the headline and showed it to everyone, "It's of vital importance that signs of rejection are caught early on to avoid the slow and painful electrocution. The first signs are usually: shaking, sleep deprivation, nightmares, confusion, paranoia and the barrier between the two egos is weakened. If this is left untreated the brain will electrocute the body and affect vital areas that will torture the subject until death."

"What barrier? Why is there a barrier and why are there two egos?" Axel had goose bumps all over from hearing Cloud describe the monster's they had seen back in Kyoto.

"This isn't about controlling the memories anymore," Saïx said, "It's the third stage. This is the practical part. Memories leave an electric trace in the brain, an imprint that's deep enough for us to go back to it and remember what's happened. They can't simply be erased, they have to be overwritten by something else. That's why there has to be two egos – one that is being overwritten and the other with the new memories."

"What about people with amnesia?" Axel challenged.

"The conscious mind doesn't have access to the memories, they're there, but they can't be read. That's why some people with amnesia can recover the memories. Their conscious mind regains access to the memories it didn't have access to before, while others lose pass into that part of the brain forever."

"I'm not big on neuroscience," Zack cut in, "But that does make sense. If it's possible to overwrite a person's memories, you can make a new person, so to speak."

"But why go through that trouble? Why not just find the person you are so desperately trying to remake?" Cloud sighed, "Unless this is an attempt to make the perfect Manchurian Candidate."

"This doesn't seem to be advanced enough to make a perfect Manchurian Candidate. Not when they have to replace memories with other memories." Zack took the notebook from Cloud and looked at the strange drawings.

Axel stared ahead while the other three tried to decipher the drawings, like they weren't involved with this enough to know what they meant. Axel didn't mind playing the game, it was his neck on the line anyway, he was the only one here with a mark, the only one who saw the wench come and go as she pleased and he was the only one who knew about Aqua.

**~ooo~**

The clinically white room was cold and he had been soaked in water. The chair he sat in was made of some kind of plastic, his hands and arms had been tied down to it as well as his legs. There were wires on his head in different colors and he was hooked up to a machine that beeped with a five second pause in between. He wasn't sure why he knew that; maybe he had spent long hours tied up like this.

There were people in lab coats standing in the room. His vision was blurry and he couldn't quite make out their faces at first, but the blurriness slowly disappeared as he blinked slowly. The man standing closest to him reacted as soon as he started to pull on his restraints, his arms and legs were numb from the cold water and as he tried to call for help he realized that he had been gagged with something that kept his tongue down.

"We have a reaction."

The other man came closer, but the man with a notepad in his hand kept his distance as he wrote down everything he saw.

His eyes were probed open as they shone a bright light into them. It hurt. He tried to shy away, but his head was kept in place by the chair he was sitting on.

"The eyes are reacting to light," said the other man. "There's no rejection. This might be the candidate you've been waiting for."

He recognized the man that had come to him first. He couldn't quite see his face, but he recognized his voice. It was Xemnas. This was his laboratory and this was where he conducted his experiments. As he tried to pull free again, he felt a lock of hair fall down over his shoulder and down on his chest. It was a pale blue.

This was a dream.

"Fill the tank," Xemnas said to his assistant and turned back to face him, "We'll give it another go. It won't hurt as much this time, but you have to be patient. When the water starts to fall, don't panic."

He had to blink several times to get rid of the white spots in his sight, and just as he could see properly again, Naminé walked up to him with the same serene face as always. He tried to scream for help and pull free, but she ignored him and smiled gently as she pointed at the third man.

"Axel, look."

He looked at the third man and blinked away the water that was running down his face. His breathing was already heavy; the sense of panic in his chest made it feel like he was physically unable to pull in enough air into his lungs, but the sight of the man overseeing this torture was enough to make his heart skip a beat.

Saïx.

It was Saïx standing there, taking notes of the things Xemnas was doing. Was this what Naminé wanted to show him? Was this the agony Aqua had gone through just because she had put her faith in the wrong people? Axel shivered and stared at Saïx, trying to assimilate this with the person he had once befriended. This was what Saïx wanted to stay for, to be able to work as the scientist he never got the chance to educate himself into, he had found another way to fulfill his dream.

The tank was slowly filled with water, the glass around him was clean and allowed him to see the room perfectly, but all he could focus on was Saïx, and he wondered if this was what he had always been. Strangely, it would make sense to him if this was the monster he had befriended. Saïx had manipulated him for as long as he had known him, and Axel had played him right into his hands.

There was no point in feeling guilty anymore. He didn't mind admitting that he had been the one to drag Saïx into the world of the yakuza, but he couldn't take the blame for what Saïx was, what he always had been. It wasn't difficult to come to terms with what he was seeing, not at that moment, because it wasn't the first time he came to this conclusion.

The only person he could save now was himself, and he hoped that he wouldn't have to be the one to put an end to Saïx.

Axel closed his eyes as the water swirled around his mouth and he took one last breath as the water quickly came over his head. Xemnas stood by the tank, watching him fight against his body reflexes until he couldn't anymore and he took a deep breath of cold water that burned in his lungs.

"Axel! Axel! Damn it! Cloud, wake him up. I have to take him to the hospital."

He got up with a gasp, startling Cloud who had just leaned down to shake him. The nightmare was over. He moved his arms and legs to make sure that he wasn't restrained and earned weird looks from Cloud.

"What's with the screaming?" He asked and realized that his throat was sore.

"Zack had to take Saïx into the emergency room. He's bleeding out. We'll go after them, let's go." Cloud was already out in the hallway when Axel got up onto his feet and hurried after him.

"What do you mean? Did he injure himself?"

"I don't know, Axel. I just hope that it's just a very bad nosebleed and not a hemorrhage in his brain."

He was dragged out and pushed into Cloud's car. His mind was blank, and that tightness in his chest was worse than ever. He thought he wouldn't care as much after what Naminé had shown him, he had hoped that he would ease up about it and focus on getting his own life back on track, but even though he knew that Saïx was a monster, he couldn't stop hoping that maybe there were bits and pieces of Isa left to salvage.


	14. In My Veins

****************Title:******** ********Last Train**************  
><strong>Author:<strong> **************nikki_ntm**************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **************Shattered Apocalypse**************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> **************14/20**************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** **********Drama/Adventure/Suspense**********  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**** ******M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ **Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** **********Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x  
><strong>

**Chapter 14: In My Veins  
><strong>

**~ooo~**

**2007**

**~ooo~**

Zexion's mansion was soon to be filled with the most important people in the family. A so called merge was about to take place and all of it had been made possible by Zexion's persistence and persuasion skills. The Chinese Triads had been breaking ground in Kobe and they had caused quite a stir amongst the higher-ups. The yakuza families had joined forces and pushed them back, but the group Lea wanted to vanish the most had stuck around, and the leader of those scums was the new addition to the family.

He hurried down the corridor at the ground floor and opened the door to the small cleaning shed where he had hidden an unpretentious black bag that was full with money. This was compensation money. Lea had tried hard to get rid of that Liam, as the leader called himself. He had begged Isa to do something, to hinder the merge, but it was difficult to get him to do anything for him nowadays.

This city was too small for them now. Lea wanted to keep Larxene far away from Liam, and leaving was their only choice.

He dug in his pocket to find his cell phone when he felt it vibrate for the tenth time in about as many minutes.

It was Isa.

He stared at the blinking screen on his cell phone and sighed as he put it back in his pocket and closed the door to the shed quietly. He was through with this life; he was through getting in trouble for someone who used to be his best friend, for someone who had decided to abandon him instead. It hurt realizing it, and he would probably never have thought of this if Larxene hadn't been there to support him when he needed it.

The cell phone vibrated again and he took it out to see who was calling. He flipped it open and put it to his ear with a small smile, "I was starting to worry that you were bailing out on me."

He gulped and dried his other hand off on the front of his shirt when he realized that he was breaking a sweat. He looked around to make sure that there was no one around.

"_I was thinking the same about you." _

Nervousness didn't suit Larxene, he thought at hearing her voice, she was meant to be confident and keep him convinced to the very end that they were doing right in abandoning the family to start a normal life together.

"You're ready with the packing yet? I have what I need right here with me. I could run over to you now."

He could hear her smile through the phone and he knew that she shook her head softly.

"_We can't. We have to wait for Zexion to leave the house. They'll meet Xemnas at the Crowne Hotel an hour before Marluxia's arrival. We have to leave within that hour. Is he getting ready yet?"_

"I don't know. I think he's still upstairs. Lex is standing guard outside so I can't sneak around."

A small beep sounded over the conversation. Isa was calling again.

"_I'll call you when I leave for the station. We'll take the first train to Shimonoseki." _

This was really happening. Soon this gangster life would be a thing of the past. They would take the first ship to South Korea and leave everything behind. There was nothing keeping them here anyway.

"Yeah. Be careful, don't get emotional with everyone and don't tell them where you're going."

"_Same to you,"_ Larxene paused and he could hear her sigh softly as if she was preparing to say something else. _"See you later."_

He hung up and decided to go out and sit in the dimly lit garden. No one would think of going there today, not when the big boss was in town.

Despite all the bad things that had happened here, it felt strange leaving it all behind. This had been his home for the past nine years; the people here had been the ones to have his back when he needed it. And yet, it had always felt like he was just passing by, like this wasn't his definite stop in life, but then again, that's not what he was used to feel. This had been his home until he had decided to do the dirty work for Isa and save him from a life they had been doomed to live anyway. Despite his efforts, Isa did nothing but utilize him and judge him.

He didn't think that he had changed that much over the years, but Isa had changed beyond recognition. He wasn't the Isa he had known, he was becoming something ugly and it had opened Lea's eyes to the reality of the life he was living. It was difficult to believe that Isa had been able to hide his ugly side from his mother as long as he had.

The look of disgust in Isa's eyes that rainy evening was something that would forever haunt him; here, in South Korea, everywhere. Isa had pulled away from him as if his touch had been enough to make him physically ill. Lea had become a murderer that evening. He hadn't hesitated to get blood on his hands for Isa, but it hadn't been enough. Isa had turned his back on him, and Lea had refused to accept that their friendship had ended that day. While he tried to patch everything up by obeying his every command, Isa climbed up in rank. Lea had given him power, but the family saw him as nothing but Isa's loyal dog, and Lea knew that they laughed at him behind his back.

Nothing comes for free, he thought as he held his bag closer to him.

The cell phone vibrated again and Lea took it out to look at it lazily, Isa was being awfully persistent. He put it back in his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair. The wait was tearing on his nerves. He just wanted to get out and be done with it. There was really no point in waiting, even though Larxene insisted on that there was.

He lay down on the bench and looked at the sky as time passed by. The amount of steps down the stairs came as a surprise, and he sat up to look into the foyer and saw that Lexaeus, Xaldin, Seifer and Raijin walked out. There was no sign of Zexion though.

Lea waited for a moment, this could be his cue. Maybe there had been a change of plans, but when Zexion didn't show, he stood up and threw the bag over his shoulder and walked back in quietly. There was no one in the corridor on the second floor. He tiptoed toward Zexion's room to hear if maybe he was still in there, but he stopped when he heard voices come from the other side of the corridor – from Zexion's office.

"_You'll have to fetch Larxene. The exchange will take place in two hours. Seifer will be going with you. And look a bit happier, will you? Unfortunately for all of us, you'll have to meet with Xemnas and the last thing he needs is to look at your sulky face."_

"_What will Ansem say?"_

"_Ansem doesn't know. Besides, it's none of his business. He stopped caring a long time ago and thanks to that, we have leverage."_

"_What's the deal?"_

"_You're in no position to ask questions, Saïx. Do as you're told. The instructions I gave you is all you need to complete this mission successfully. Oh, and try to complete this mission without using Axel. There's no need for him to witness you kidnapping his girlfriend."_

Lea clenched his fists tightly and he had to keep reminding himself that nothing was going to happen to Larxene to not slam the door open and punch Isa's teeth out.

"_Yes, Saïx. I know that you failed at keeping Axel away from her. You can surely see the lack of surprise on my face, that's because I was warned about your failure. If it wasn't for all the money you owe me, I'd throw you out to the curb."_

Lea pressed closer to the door and heard Zexion shuffle some papers around and he chuckled at the silence that stretched between him and Isa.

"_What, Saïx? Are you going to stand there all night? What do you want to say? Are you going to tell me off? After all I've done for you."_

"_You haven't been much of help."_

"_Haven't I?" _Zexion didn't sound the least bit angry, _"Are you trying to blame the death of your mother on me again? Shame, Saïx, shame. You killed her the second you decided to chase those silly dreams of yours. You didn't know your place, Saïx. That was the lesson your mother had to pay for with her life. You seem to be forgetting your place again, and I don't think you can afford more losses, can you?"_

For a moment it was like Lea felt a void in his chest. Isa's mother was dead. His mind raced; how could he have missed something like that? Even if Isa had decided to keep him out of it, he would've found out through someone else, unless no one else knew.

He leaned his forehead against the door softly, what if no one else knew?

Zexion knew, he told himself as if that would somehow make it all better. It cushioned the sense of guilt he felt at missing something that should have been so obvious to him, but even as he thought back he couldn't figure out when it could have happened. Had it been recently?

"_Is that all?" _Lea heard Isa ask after another moment of silence.

"_Yes."_

Isa walked up to the door and Lea held his breath, as if that would keep Isa from noticing him when he stepped out of the room. He wasn't sure why he wasn't hiding, maybe he wanted to say something. "I'm sorry for your loss" seemed like a drop in the ocean, but after so many years spent together, he had to say something.

"_No, wait. There is one more thing. I told Seifer to clear his schedule this Wednesday so that he can go with you to the tattoo artist. You have to get that dragon finished, the coloring needs fixing. I cannot have you walking the streets and making us look bad with that half-done tattoo any longer. You should clear your schedule as well. The tattoo artist estimated that it would take approximately eight hours to be done with it." _

Lea held his breath and moved closer into the door to hear better when the silence stretched again. Eight hours was a long time to be under the needle, Lea thought, and Isa's tattoo was on a very sensitive place. Only show-offs tattooed their neck, and Lea had thought that Isa was showing off. He could never be like everyone else, he always reached higher to stand out, to seem special, but now, Lea felt himself tremble at the thought that maybe Isa had been forced into it.

"_No."_

"_You don't have a choice, Saïx."_

"_Stop calling me by that name."_

Zexion sighed loudly.

"_I don't have time for your little fits now, Saïx. Just do as you're told or suffer the consequences. There are worse things than death, to quote our dear Master Ansem."_

The silence that followed was ominous. Lea rested his hand onto the doorknob, ready to barge in, and his heart thumped hard in his chest when he suddenly heard Zexion scream in agony. The scream wasn't long-lasting, but it was loud, and Lea froze as he heard small thumps come from inside the room. He expected that his brothers would come running, and it felt like he waited for eternities before he pushed the door open with more force than he had intended.

"Isa..." His voice trembled at what he saw and he dropped the bag in his hand as his muscles felt heavy.

The room smelled of blood. It was a smell he had gotten used to and he hadn't thought much of it before, but now, as he watched Isa stand over Zexion's motionless body, this smell seemed repulsive and sinful.

Isa stood up straight slowly, keeping his gaze on Zexion's limb body where it lay on the Persian carpet. His look was blank and empty as he slowly realized that Lea was in the room with him. Lea closed the door and locked it before he ran up to Zexion to see if he was still breathing.

"Shit..."

He didn't even know where to begin. There was a gaping wound on the back of Zexion's head and there was no way for Lea to stop the blood from flowing out.

Zexion was dead.

"Isa, what did you do?"

He looked up at Isa who stood there, clutching one of Zexion's many trophies with blood splattered across his shirt and face. He shook his head slowly and stepped back.

"It was his fault."

"He's supposed to be at a meeting with the big boss in less than an hour and you killed him!" He stood up and paced nervously. Isa was done for if they found out about this. "Fuck... this is bad. This is really bad." Lea was about to run his fingers through his hair but reminded himself of the blood on them.

When he turned around to face Isa again he couldn't help but to notice the serene look on his face.

"Have you been planning this?"

Isa looked up at him with a stern glare, but he remained silent.

That silence, he had come to hate it with a fiery passion. The higher Isa climbed the less he spoke with him. Seifer had told him that it was something the higher-ups always did, Isa was no exception. A dog's job was to follow orders anyway, nothing else.

He didn't care anymore, he reminded himself with a snort.

"We have to get rid of the body. The guys downstairs are waiting for Zexion to get down there and they'll be coming up to check on him in at least ten minutes. The garden is right out that window, right?" Lea hurried over to the window and pulled it open to look down. If they pushed Zexion's body through the window he would fall straight into the bushes.

He walked back to Zexion's body and tried to figure out how best to carry him without getting more blood on the carpet.

"Once he's in the garden I can run down and dig him a hole. There's no one out there now and it's dark. No one will see me and you can go and change clothes and –"

"It doesn't matter."

Isa's monotone answer left a crack in the cocky façade Lea was putting up, and he turned slowly to face him.

"What?"

"It doesn't matter. I don't care if they find out." He tried to smile but it quickly turned into a shaky sigh as he clutched the trophy closer, "You're leaving, aren't you?"

Lea stood up slowly. His mouth felt dry and that sickening nervousness came back again. He thought of lying first or maybe even telling Isa that it was none of his business, but he couldn't, not when Isa stared at him with that blank look in his eyes.

"How did you know?"

"You've stolen fifty million yen from the safe and you've completely ignored me these past two weeks. I would've given you the money if you'd asked."

Had he always looked this tired, this pale?

_Why are you talking like this, why won't you yell at me for getting you in trouble, why aren't you telling me to take you away from here? _

He wanted to shake Isa, get him to react, but he stood frozen until Isa broke the silence.

"If I don't leave now, they'll send Seifer after Larxene." Isa gave him a quick look, "Go."

"No. Isa, you can't do this. They will kill you a thousand times for this. There won't be anything left of you when they're done." He walked up to him to grab him by his arm and drag him out of here, but Isa pulled away.

"I don't care! Whatever happens, happens. You better leave before you get dragged into this."

"I'm already in this up to my neck, Isa! I can't leave knowing that you're practically committing suicide. There's time to hide the body, let me do this for you at least."

They suddenly heard heavy footsteps from further down the corridor and some mumbling that became clearer the closer the two outside came.

"_Lexaeus, he's probably just a bit nervous about meeting Xemnas. I assure you, we're well within time."_

"_That is easy for you to say. You're already within Xemnas' inner circle. Zexion is up for second in command and he has to make a good first impression to be the sole candidate for that position."_

Lea had never felt this sense of panic before. He couldn't let Isa go through with this; he couldn't just leave knowing that the two men that were about to come through the door were going to take justice in their own hands for what Isa had done to Zexion.

Isa still mattered to him, more so than he dared to admit.

He snatched the trophy that Isa held in his hand and took a deep breath.

"Lea, what are you-"

"You can't give up, not like this. Live, Isa. You'll owe me that much for this."

"_Zexion!"_

Lexaeus tried to open the door, but when it didn't work he started to push on it. The wooden door was no match for the bulky giant and it folded underneath his weight by his third attempt. Lea felt his heartbeat like a dull sound coming from the back of his neck. The second Lexaeus stepped in he felt the stench of blood.

Whatever he was going to say died out in his mouth when he saw Zexion motionless on the floor and Lea's bloodied hands, holding the soiled trophy he had seen so many times before.

"What the hell have you done?"

He hurried to Zexion's side and cradled him into his arms, trying to find any signs of him still being alive. Xaldin stepped inside and frowned at what he saw. He was a huge man, almost comparable to Lexaeus, and Lea gulped as the floor shook slightly with each heavy step that he took.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"I killed him," Lea said quickly, "Isa tried to stop me, but he got here too late."

Xaldin eyed Isa from where he stood behind Lea, pale as a sheet and as silent as the dead body on the floor. He must have clearly heard about them enough to know that he should be in doubt.

"Is that true?"

"Of course it is!" Lea burst out with a slightly panicked laugh, "Why would I take the blame if I hadn't done it?"

"I'm not talking to you." Xaldin's eyes flashed dangerously and took one step closer to get a better look at Isa, "Is he telling the truth?"

Lea looked at Isa with a both pleading and fearful look in his eyes. It was all on Isa now; if he wanted he could end his own life right now by taking the blame. Lea wasn't sure why he was so convinced that he could deal with the punishment for this and why Isa couldn't. Isa wasn't fragile, or rather, he hadn't been fragile before – but he was falling apart now, and Lea felt guilty for wanting to leave him behind.

"Saïx! Did he do this, yes or no?"

"He did."

It looked like the air had been sucked out of Isa the second he uttered those words and at that very same moment Lea felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket.

Larxene.

He took out his cell phone, but Xaldin snatched it away and threw it across the room.

"It's too late for that now, redhead."

He struggled against Xaldin's grip, he was sure that he did, but that blaring screen on his cell phone was what he remembered the most about that moment. Larxene was ready to leave, she would be waiting for him at the train station, but he wouldn't be there.

Seifer, and maybe even Isa, would be there in his stead, ready to escort her to the Crowne Hotel where Marluxia would be waiting.

No death had ever been enough to stop a business deal from going through.

"Isa, warn her! Tell her what happened! Isa!"

He never caught the meaning look that Xaldin gave Isa, but that small nod Isa gave in return was enough to put his mind at ease.

Lea didn't know what they would do with him now, no one had been stupid enough to take the blame for the murder of the second in command before. Death didn't seem like punishment enough.

His imagination was running wild, and despite the long drive, it never once crossed his mind that Xaldin was going to turn him into the police.

Lea had to call Larxene; he wanted to know if she was okay, but she never answered his calls. After months of insistent calling he found out that she had managed to escape.

She was fine and she hated his guts, but he was never told why that was.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

It had been two hours now. His one leg was starting to tingle and he could feel it stick in his foot from keeping it still so long, he was shaking his other leg and drumming his fingers against it as he looked at the clock for the millionth time. It didn't take two hours to establish that someone was having a nosebleed, he hated to know that. It just made it more difficult to sit here completely powerless, waiting for a doctor to show up with some kind of news.

The TV hanging in the corner was amusing some patients in the waiting room, a group of nurses stood by the reception, looking at different folders while gossiping about which doctor was going out with whom, and it was all utterly annoying to see how everyone else's lives continued while his own was going straight to hell.

Marluxia must have done something to Saïx. There was no other way Axel could explain Saïx's behavior and symptoms, before then he had been normal, but what could he have done? Axel doubted that Marluxia would be let in on any of Xemnas' secrets, especially those concerning his research. Marluxia was dangerous and unscrupulous, he would step over his own mother's corpse to get to what he wanted and as far as Axel knew, Marluxia still wanted the post as second in command.

Axel reached for the file he had under his jumper and put it on his lap, he was starting to break a sweat being as nervous as he was and he didn't want to lose these files without looking through them first. He was still far from solving this mystery and he had to care for the few clues that he had to an answer.

After another few more minutes, Axel got up and walked over to the reception desk where he could look into the long hallway. Both Cloud and Zack had disappeared in there and he thought that they would at least have the courtesy to keep him updated. When the nurses from the reception desk left, Axel walked in closer and took a plastic bag that was empty. It had the Shinra Cookies logo on it and Axel put the file in it, wrapped it up and put it back into his jumper again.

"He should be getting married soon; it would be a shame if he didn't. Imagine having his child." One of the nurses giggled as she held up the door to her friend.

"I'd rather not," said the other.

"Why not?"

"Because I have to work with him and you're making it difficult to concentrate by putting all those weird thoughts into my head."

Axel hurried over to the door before it closed and waited for the chatter to slowly die out before opening the door that said "Staff only" and sneaking into a lounge. The room was connected with the long hallway and Axel quickly reached for a white lab coat and for a white hairnet to hide his red hair. He put on a mask as well and hurried down the main hallway until he heard someone step out of a patient's room. He quickly hid behind a corner, cursing under his breath.

"Dr. Fair, do you have time to speak now?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. What is it?"

"Dr. Bach won't be coming in for the night shift and I was wondering if you could fill in for him."

"Yeah, I'll do that. I was going to stay anyway, I have a high-risk patient to attend to…"

"Right. How did that go? Is he stabilized yet?"

"He is. We managed to properly reduce the intracranial pressure, there's no more bleeding. Now we just have to wait and see if there's been any damage done to the brain tissue."

The elder doctor nodded and smiled, patting Zack on the shoulder, "He's in good hands. Good work, Dr. Fair." He walked off and left Zack there, looking back at the room where Saïx was. He peaked in and said something to whoever was in there aside from Saïx and then walked away in the other direction with quick steps.

Axel sank down onto the floor and rubbed his face with both of his hands and sighed. He wanted Marluxia to be responsible for this. That would at least rid Axel of the thought that maybe Saïx was walking down the same road his mother had gone. There was a cure and a face to rearrange if Marluxia was behind this, and as soon as Axel could get his legs to work again, he would march into Saïx's room and find out what Marluxia had done.

"Axel."

He sighed again and looked up with an annoyed glare at hearing that serene voice. He stared her right into those baby-blue eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Axel."

"Did you do this?"

She smiled and shook her head, "You must find her."

"Aqua? Why do I have to find her? How do I even know that she's alive? And even if she was, why would it matter, huh? What makes her so goddamn special? My friend is dying in there and you just come along like everything's fucking fine." He tried to keep his voice low in this big and empty hallway where even a whisper could be heard.

"You must release her. She's suffering."

"Tell me where she is and I'll help her out, but I'm not gonna crisscross throughout all of Japan to find her. If her own mother thinks she's dead then why should I believe anything else?"

"He hurt her."

"Are you even listening to me? Just tell me where she is! You're Ansem's computer, right? You should know where he kept his experiments and where he used to go – all of his dirty secrets. Stop giving me cryptic messages if you really want me to find her."

"He will die if you don't find her."

"You fucking wench, if you as much as bend a hair on his head I'll smash you up like –" Axel was just about to reach his arms out to swat her away, but she disappeared and suddenly he could hear someone hurry down the hallway to his left and he stood up, looking away.

"Axel?" Zack walked up to him, he had a file in his hand and he waited for Axel to look at him, "What are you doing here? You can't come in here without permission..."

"Permission? I've been waiting for two hours!" Axel pulled the mask away, "How long were you gonna keep me waiting? Or are you gonna say that you decided not to tell me because somehow _I_ caused Saïx the hemorrhage?"

"Look, I know that it has taken us long to get back to you. I'm sorry for that. Saïx is out of danger for now, it was massive bleeding and I honestly thought that we were going to lose him, but he's stable now."

The anger Axel had felt just now was like blown away when he was reminded of the gravity of the situation. A massive bleeding, he said. What did that mean? Had he been bleeding into his brain since Kyoto? Axel didn't know how these things worked, or how long it lasted before the brain or any other body part started to react.

"You said to the other doctor something about damage to the brain tissue. What does that mean?"

"When a bleeding in the brain occurs it can damage the brain tissue around the bleeding. It cuts off the blood from other vital parts of the brain and it manifests in different ways; some have to learn to talk again, others lose motor skills and have to relearn that, some suffer cognitive damage. We just have to wait and see and work from there. There's a fifty percent chance that he'll walk away from this without damage and for now we can only hope that he's in those fifty."

Axel had to hold his hands against the wall to not sink back to the floor again. How was it possible to say all of that and know that you were talking about someone's life? He had to laugh softly as Zack's diagnosis echoed in his head. For years he had wished for Saïx to rely on him again, he never thought that Saïx would have to be incapacitated for it to happen, and he wondered, as he held back the tears, how many times had he put Saïx in the crossfire to get what he wanted?

"There's something I need to ask you. Has he had brain surgery before?"

"What? No. Never. Why?"

"Are you sure? How long have you known each other?"

"Since we were ten. He's never had brain surgery, we could hardly afford going to the doctor's."

Zack looked worried and was deep in thought while drumming his fingers against the folder he was holding. He sighed and he scratched the back of his neck as he made a decision.

"There is something really weird that I found. I thought that I had just done the CT wrong somehow, or maybe that I was reading it wrong, so I asked around to get other opinions to make sure that I had drawn the right conclusion. Do you mind if we take this somewhere more private?"

Zack didn't let him answer the question, he walked down the hallway to the right with big steps, he pulled out his ID-card and put it against a machine that gave a beep and opened the door. He held it up for Axel and gestured for him to sit down. When the door closed, a light by the door lit red and Axel gulped.

"Let me just begin by saying that this is not a hearing or anything. This is just me trying to figure this out, okay?"

"Sure."

Zack turned to a board across from Axel that was attached to the wall and he lit up the lights on it and opened the folder to put the different CT scans on there.

"This is Saïx's brain. This is where the bleeding occurred. See that it's lighter thanany other part of the picture? These pictures were taken before taking him to any O.R. First we had to establish where the bleeding came from and on these scans we can see that the bleeding occurred in left Hippocampus."

"So how does it look now after surgery?"

"That's the thing. There was no surgical treatment. It could've killed him just as easily as the hemorrhage. It's too dangerous to go in so far into the brain, so we just had to wait it out and hope that it would stop. Blood was literally running down his nose, it was almost like he had overdosed on blood thinners, but, look at the next picture."

Zack pointed at the picture he had put up next to the first one. His fingers were shaking slightly from fascination and he pointed to where Saïx's brain had bled.

"It's not shining anymore." Axel said as he got up from his chair and closer to the board.

"His nosebleed stopped shortly after that. He didn't lose as much blood as it looked like so he didn't need a transfusion, we just need to keep him hydrated. And here's the thing that I went to verify for a moment ago. There are thousands of capillaries in the brain, it's enough for one to pop for something to happen, many wouldn't have survived something like this and those who do may end up with severe amnesia. Saïx's brain looks like it has been wired to cope with bleeding in Hippocampus without injuring the tissue around it. That can't be natural, not even a miraculous mutation."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that someone must've done this. Don't ask me how, because I wouldn't be able to tell ya, but this – this has to be manmade."


	15. When The Visions Come To Nothing

******************Title:******** **********Last Train****************  
><strong>Author:<strong> ****************nikki_ntm****************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ****************Shattered Apocalypse****************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ****************15/20****************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ************Drama/Adventure/Suspense************  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**** ********M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.****************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ ****Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).****************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ************Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.****************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ****************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x**

**Chapter 15: When the Visions Come To Nothing**

The dark library was cold and the burnt lamps had yet to be replaced. There was a flickering light in the far back of the room and a soft breeze blew in through the small vent that kept the air fresh. The room was filled with well used bookshelves and in the middle there was a mahogany table surrounded by comfortable chairs and an old television set, complete with a VCR to see the old tapes that had been stored and hidden away in this secret room.

Marluxia leaned back into his chair while he reached for another snack-sized pickle and put it in his mouth. A small smile played on his lips and he tried to pout at Master Ansem's sorrowful speech to one of the hidden cameras he had put into the laboratory, but he ended up chuckling instead.

"What a fool of a man," he mumbled and took another pickle.

Nearly two weeks had gone by since he had caught Saïx and lost him to Axel. It had taken him a week to explain to Xigbar why he had been in Kyoto at the same time as Saïx and in the exact same vicinity without contacting the family. Xigbar probably knew why, he only asked to be nice, because that's the kind of big brother Xigbar was, the vanishing bruise on the side of Marluxia's mouth was proof of that.

Never strike a man to the face, was usually Xigbar's frame of reference, but Marluxia just pissed him off too much not to take a swing at his "pretty-boy" face.

It hadn't been enough to intimidate him. It had only made him certain of the treasure that was hidden here in this secluded house in the old prostitute's lair. He had been searching for this since ever – all men had a weak spot, as ruthless as they might be, and Marluxia was sure he had found enough material here to make it to the top of the food chain. Fortunately for him, he didn't have to look long to find the safe that had been left open in this underground lab, and what glorious things he had found.

"Demyx!"

His protégé hurried into the room and stopped by the television, his back straight and his eyes looking out into nothing. It had been hard training him, but it had been worth his while and from how he saw it they both benefited from it. Demyx didn't like difficult tasks and Marluxia liked someone who could easily blend in the background and seem harmless to everyone.

"Be a doll and put the next video in. That man is going to bore me to death with his endless yap."

Demyx took the video out and put the next one in, waiting for the screen to settle before he stood back, "Anything else?"

"Yes, bring me something for acid refluxes. I've had too many pickles. And take these away." He gave Demyx the small bowl of pickles and waved him off.

The video started with the date of the filming and Marluxia sat back again: _"17__th__ July, 2002 15:36:07" _Roughly ten years ago.

The doors into the laboratory were pushed open by the force of a stretcher coming through. Marluxia knew the two men on screen, but on the stretcher lay a woman, tied down and convulsing. As Ansem kept her head still, Xemnas injected her with a sedative that made her body limb.

"_How long will you keep doing this, Xemnas?"_

"_Until she gets better."_

Marluxia sighed, "Haven't I seen this movie?"

Xemnas rolled up the sleeves on his white shirt. He walked over to a small trolley and started with what Marluxia could only assume to be a magic potion to save whoever the damsel in distress was.

"_You must realize that this experiment was a failure! There is no fixing her anymore, Xemnas! There is nothing left to fix, you destroyed her for your own personal gain and now you have to assume the consequences."_

"_Is that so, Master? Is that true even if Arlene is on the line?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_If Aqua dies, so will Arlene. They share one life, if Aqua's brain stops functioning, Arlene's will stop too and she will become a living dead, trapped in her mind. It's like you say, Master. There are things worse than death, and that is not something you wish your own daughter, is it?"_

Ansem stuttered and glared at Xemnas' back, "_You are lying. You couldn't possibly have managed that. I aborted the experiments six months in, that's not enough time."_

"_You think that she obeyed you? It wasn't difficult to make her believe that I was undoing what you had done. We did have something very fundamental in common – we both despised you."_

"Touché." As much as Xemnas annoyed him, he did have to recognize that he knew how to plan ahead and to never trust anyone completely, not even his own master.

"_You are despicable, Xemnas. Despicable! You had no right! I helped you with your project. I asked no questions and even though it was an obvious failure you kept patching her up, knowing that there is nothing you can do anymore. She won't recognize you because you never let her know you! You implanted a false memory of someone else in her mind and subconsciously she must have known, Xemnas. She must have known that Terra wasn't real, that is why her mind killed him... and you couldn't bare it. You were outsmarted by the one thing you are trying to control, the human mind. Man wasn't meant to meddle in God's work."_

Marluxia leaned forward, suddenly very interested by how this unfolding tragedy was playing out. Would Xemnas go for the classic open-hand slap to his opponent's face, would he scream back in rage or would he harm the old man?

"_You are the only one here who knows what failure is. This is why you've never become anything, Master. You teach, but you always have to see your students surpass yourself because you have no confidence in science. I had the courage and you tagged along like a scared child, waiting to see the results. You wanted this as much as I did. Isn't that why you let me experiment on your daughter? You speak of God, but you weren't happy with what child God had given you, you wanted to have her improved and when that didn't work you ran away with the tail between your legs. Well, you are in this now and you can't turn your back on it. I will do whatever is necessary to keep the person I cherish, and you will help me... doctor Ansem."_

Ansem stormed out of the room and Xemnas looked after him briefly while approaching the stretcher. He reached out his arm and slowly brushed away a stray hair that had fallen over Aqua's face. The video fast-forwarded until a month later where the screen flickered and changed to Ansem sitting by a desk, filming himself with a handheld camera.

He looked completely beat, his beard had grown and his eyes were sunken. He cleared his throat and reached for his notes and decided to look down instead of looking at the camera.

"_The subject has responded well to treatment. Her capability of retaining and creating new memories has increased during her stay at this facility. She has also regained much of her old memories that were lost due to miscalculation in earlier experiments. Some of the not so old memories are still scrambled, however, and there are no guarantees that she will regain them. Stimulating the Hippocampus has been of outmost importance, since that is the part of the brain where long-term memory is controlled, to later make the memories more permanent by spreading them further around the brain. The doctors involved in these experiments are, however, in disagreement whether this improvement will be permanent or if it's merely an attempt to fill a bottomless bucket with water.  
>Dr. Ansem, August 21<em>_st__, 2002."_

The video was abruptly cut into the next segment. Before there was any visual, there was a loud scream that was suddenly cut short and turned into strange whimpers. The lid was taken off the lens, and revealed that they were filming the young lady by the name of Aqua in the middle of an experiment. Marluxia quickly took a look at the bottom of the screen to get a date - November 2nd, 2002.

Aqua was tied to a chair, biting onto something that looked like white cardboard. Xemnas walked up to her to take it away. She was shaking violently; electrodes in different colors attached to a white plastic cap that she had on her head.

"_P-please, stop. I don't have anything of value to you. I've never done any business with you...why are you doing this to me?"_

She shied away when Xemnas tried to brush her cheek with the tip of his fingers and he frowned, _"We're going to make you better. You'll soon remember everything again."_

"_Let me go, you monster! Let me go!" _

She pulled and pulled on her restraints as hard as she could, but they didn't budge. The leather was starting to cut into her skin, but clearly her desire to be freed was much greater than the pain those small cuts caused her.

"_Aqua, stop it! You're hurting yourself. Ansem, sedate her!"_

Xemnas held her down by her shoulders while she continued screaming at him. Marluxia couldn't see his reaction, but as soon as Ansem had sedated her, he walked off and the only proof Marluxia had of him walking out of the room was the door shutting close. The silence left was eerie, but it was broken when Ansem sighed and walked back to the camera to turn it off, and ashe did, a new sequence started; he was back by the desk again, looking down at his notes, but this report hadn't been made after the experiment they had just filmed. This was nearly two weeks later.

"_The subject was fine until recently, all things considered. The that had been inserted in her brain had almost disappeared, except for those that were entwined with memories of her childhood. The subject thinks that she knows of a Terra, but that she hasn't seen him for years. Dr. Xemnas takes this as an accomplishment and insists on prolonging the treatment, despite the many risks that goes with it. In the treatment we use electroshock therapy to make the brain more accessible to newer memories, out of body experiences are important as well as it gives the subject a sense of being in a dream state, therefore the trauma of this treatment is minimized. Indoctrination is important as well. That is done while the subject is half-asleep. _

_Dr. Xemnas believes that this treatment is her best option, but I argue that she is – was – fine. The intensity of the treatment is starting to show on the subject, and I fear that things are turning out for the worse. In today's CT scans I can see that her Hippocampus has started to take damage. _

_Dr. Xemnas thinks he has a solution, but I'm afraid that there is nothing that can be done to salvage her at all.  
>Dr. Ansem, November 16th, 2002."<em>

It cut almost before Ansem had the time to say the year and suddenly it was someone jogging down a hallway, holding the camera as still as possible. The person, who had to be Ansem, was breathing hard and mumbling things to himself, looking around to make sure that no one was following him. He stopped when the hallway came to an end and turned the camera to film himself.

"_Dr. Ansem, July 31__st__, 2003. The experiments ceased at the end of January this year when Aqua – the__subject, regained and accepted her false__memories as true. Her Hippocampus had at that time recovered healthy tissue, which to me was quite a surprise, but Dr. Xemnas insisted that he had done it with the help of stem cells. I was only glad that the experiments were over and that my daughter was safe. I ignored the feeling telling me that something was wrong. I regret it deeply now. Deeply." _

His voice was shaky and he was talking in whispers. Marluxia leaned forward to hear whatever it was that was frightening Ansem so much. It lasted for only a brief second, but he had heard it. There were muffled screams coming from behind the doors he was standing in front of.

"_Xemnas has lost control. He has gone mad and beyond - to even think that something like this could be passed as anything but atrocious. I can't even make out what exactly he has done, but I have to document it. The world needs to know what this man is capable of, what he is willing to do to get what he wants."_

He turned on the camera to film the doors he was about to unlock and open. Marluxia could already see that something was sparkling behind the door, almost like a bare wire had fallen into a puddle of water. The muffled screams became louder. Ansem moved the camera to reveal the source of the crackling sparkles and even Marluxia felt a tug of horror at seeing what it was Ansem had discovered.

"_This man, he is between 25-30 years old. I estimate his length to be 178 cm, weight 70-75 kg. He has burns on his skin, some of third degree others of first degree. He is not attached to a chair that conducts electricity; he is__doing this to himself. I can't help him out of it, if I get too close I'll get shocked."_ Ansem paused and tried to compose himself and be as scientific about this as possible, "_My guess is that the chemistry in his brain has been tampered with to such a high degree that the electro-chemical's reaction is to stabilize it, sending burning signals down the nerves, causing pain, which in turn turns to chaos. I don't know how long he has survived like this, or how it's possible for him to be alive. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to live through this."_

Ansem put the camera down on a low table. All Marluxia could see was that he reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a revolver. It seemed to put the man at ease, seeing the barrel of the gun. Ansem fired two shots that echoed loudly in the small room. A few more electrical crackles were heard before the man's body went limb.

"_The days go by and every vision comes to nothing. God, stop the monster that I've created."_

Marluxia thought that it was the end of the video, but it was quickly cut to next sequence where Ansem was back by the desk, looking much more calmer than he had done while in the hallway.

"_Dr. Ansem, September 28__th__, 2003. I am through working with this project. I have taken care of the things that I could take care of, and I have gathered enough evidence to hold it against Xemnas, would he ever decide to come after me. I've released my daughter from the grip of that evil man, though it was a difficult task and might have hurt some people. Meddling with the yakuza has been the biggest mistake in my life and I might never get out of it, but I have come to terms with it. To obtain the information that I needed to release Arlene I had to turn to one of my students, Ienzo, who did me this favor in exchange of the highly sought after scholarship for Tokyo University. It was a small price to pay and now I can finally leave. I know you'll be watching this someday, Xemnas. I don't hold high hopes for you and I'm not stupid enough to think that you'll cease with your experiments when I'm gone. Your beloved one is damaged and it is all your fault, I hope you know that. I'll be fighting against you in whatever way that I can, starting with this."_

He held up a small black box and opened it to reveal seven USB-sticks, _"My parting gift. May we both pay a high price for the deeds we have committed."_

The screen turned black and the VCR came to a halt before it started to automatically rewind the tape. Marluxia sighed and looked to his left, where Demyx had sat down on an armchair. He had put a glass of water and a tablet for acid refluxes next to Marluxia**, **and sighed as the video came to an end.

"What a sad movie."

"Indeed it was." Marluxia agreed, taking the glass in his hand,swallowing the tablet with a sip of water, "The video, although informative, is of very little use to us. We don't know if Aqua is alive or where she is. We can't use her as leverage if we can't prove that she's alive, can we, Demyx?"

"I guess not." He reached to the side of his armchair and gave Marluxia a folder, "I was browsing through the files earlier and thought that it might interest you. It might be about our boss Saïx."

"How do you figure?" Marluxia took the folder and flipped it open.

"I got promoted to Zexion's group a day or so before he was murdered. Back then the boss was known as Isa, and that's the name of whoever is being experimented on in that folder. Can't be many of interest with that name, right?"

"Oh, how I like your ability to still surprise me after all these years."

Xemnas was quite meticulous with his paperwork and this was a perfect example of it**. **Saïx had been admitted to a mental facility, where Xemnas worked at, three months after the murder of Zexion. Marluxia chuckled as he read on. Dr. Even had recommended Saïx to Xemnas for "treatment" after four sessions of therapy – and who was the wonderful man that had recommended Dr. Even? None other than Doctor Ansem Kenzui.

"This world is far too small, don't you think so, Demyx? There are just too many big fish in this pond."

"I just want to go home to my sitar. We've been on the road for a long time now. And we've all been scolded over and over again for not finding him. He's really selfish."

Marluxia nodded absentmindedly, feeling his heart beat faster as he read on. This information was too good to be true; itwas almost like tripping over the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

"Listen to this, our dearest brother was diagnosed with clinical depression and started seeing Xemnas for electroconvulsive therapy. Xemnas must have been desperate for a new test subject, or Saïx was easy to persuade - two weeks after admission the experiments started. Xemnas was going to cure him of his depression and at the same time create the new host for his beloved one." Marluxia smiled and shook his head in disbelief, "Saïx is keeping Aqua alive."

"There's a woman living inside the boss?" Demyx looked disgusted.

"In a matter of speaking. There are some things that are hard to understand, but I understand this much; Aqua is using Saïx's brain to function, like a parasite."

"This just keeps getting grosser and grosser."

"In order for Saïx to keep his own sense of self, he developed a multiple identity disorder during the experiments – there's only one listed aside from himself, so I guess that he had one identity outside his own. That identity was later terminated when he was mentally prepared to accept Aqua as a part of his brain. The memories that caused the clinical depression were put with the other identity. A mental barrier was put up to avoid a relapse. The subject has to be under constant surveillance for any proof of rejection that will manifest as nausea, dizziness, vomiting, migraine, spontaneous bleeding and convulsions. The subject is not to be taken on long-periods of trips to faraway places without the explicit permission of the highest boss of the Organization...Demyx, go and get Xaldin. Hurry."

Demyx got up and hurried outside to get Xaldin who was standing guard in the tatami room above them. Marluxia chuckled as he leaned back against the armchair and stretched his arms. He wanted to see the videos that had been taped of Xemnas experimenting on Saïx - nothing would entertain him more than the suffering of the man that had caused his life to take a less desirable direction.

There was one thing, however, that he would enjoy more.

"Axel, Axel, Axel... how I would love to see your face when you realize that you are murdering the one you wished to save."

Marluxia put the folder onto the table and looked over the page he had been reading. The latest addition had been made two months earlier, a whole month before Axel had decided to kidnap Saïx and run for the hills.

_May 24th, 2011._

_Ansem's death started his revenge action against us, against me. His hologram is threatening to ruin everything I've worked for and I cannot let it happen. The hologram has entwined Axel's memories with that of Saïx's other identity in hope to crush the wall that keeps him sane and Aqua safe. Axel is to be kept away from Saïx at all times to avoid triggers that could weaken the wall. _

_The emergency program has been initiated. The sirens are in use and the code has been set. Ansem's tracking device will be used against him._

**~ooo~**

A soft breeze blew through the small village and broke the thick heat that otherwise had a tendency to gather up around the mountains. Cloud had pulled the doors aside in the back to let some of the fresh air into the house. He was currently setting the table that Zack had carried out to the backyard. Saïx had been released from the hospital last night and they were going to celebrate with a nice meal. Zack had been reluctant to let him go even though the tests showed that there was essentially nothing wrong with him, but he could see that Saïx was well beyond sick of needles and hospital food, so he figured it would be better for him to be here, at home with them.

"Cloud! Did you get the basil?" Zack yelled from the kitchen and stood still to hear if Cloud answered.

"It's in the pantry!"

"Okay, thanks!"

Axel walked out of the living room, pushing the wheelchair where Saïx was sitting although he didn't need it. Axel backed all the way up against the door and looked ahead with a mischievous smile.

"Hang on tight, don't let anything stick out and watch out for the wheels. Are you ready?"

"Ready."

"Alright, rocket ready for launch in three...two...one..."

Axel gripped the handles tight and ran straight ahead towards the garden as fast as he could. They swooshed past the kitchen and straight out onto the porch where Axel stopped soon enough for the wheelchair not to tumble down onto the lawn. Saïx laughed as he nearly fell forward, but was stopped when Axel pushed the wheelchair back and balanced it on its wheels.

"Cloud, isn't there a steep hill around here somewhere?"

"I'll throw you off a steep hill if you keep pulling crazy stunts with Saïx. He just got out of the hospital."

"That would be an interesting fight." Saïx sighed and tried to look at Cloud but found it too comfortable to just lay down. "Cloud, how far up does the roof go?"

"That's very funny." Cloud mumbled and shook his head.

"You wanna find out?" Axel asked, amused.

"Yeah. Let's go." Saïx stood up and stretched his arms wide.

"Why don't you go in the kitchen and get the napkins instead? I forgot to bring them."

They walked back inside the house and saw Zack standing by the pantry, taking things out while he searched for the basil that Cloud had left there. Saïx grabbed the napkins from the table and took the opportunity to take a small bite off the food pie that Zack had already cut up. He had gotten his appetite back, but he was still afraid to eat properly. He didn't want the same thing that had happened at the Hokuriku Diner to happen again.

He gave Axel a thumb up as Zack nearly disappeared into the pantry. Axel took a piece too, eating it quickly, before Zack saw that they were eating ahead. He had been making a Salmon Florentino and he had seemed really excited about it too, when he realized that he could finallyuse some of the cookbooks he had bought during his time in Europe.

"Can you tell Cloud that I can't find the basil?" Zack crept out the pantry and brushed off some flour. Axel pointed at the counter behind the kitchen island and tried not to chew while Zack was looking at him.

"Isn't that the basil?" Saïx asked in his stead.

"There it is! You can take those plates outside, I'll cut this up and be with you in a sec. I bet you're starving."

They both took another piece as soon as they were out of Zack's sight. Starving was an understatement, it had been at least five hours since breakfast and they had been running around like idiots since.

Something had happened at the hospital, Axel couldn't quite explain it. Their past felt distant for the very first time in forever, it wasn't looming behind them, casting a shadow over every conversation they had. He was glad that Saïx hadn't seen him in doubt once more. He knew what he had seen in that nightmare, but he was incapable of believing it when Saïx smiled at him in the same way Isa had smiled at him before. This was their time.

They were finally on the same page, and he'd be damned if he let this go for a woman he didn't know.

The world is an ugly place, Axel reminded himself, and it wasn't his place to save it. Even so, it bothered him to think that he was going to leave Aqua to her fate. Aqua had a right to live a normal life too, and with everything that had happened up until now, Axel knew that his conscience might not leave him alone.

"Wonder what's for dessert."

"Triple chocolate brownie with lots of cream."

"You are not serious."

"Let's hope. It sounds really good, don't you think? Or maybe they have that other cake, what's it called again? – Cheesecake! With strawberries. Or maybe blueberry cupcakes. I haven't had those in a while."

"Are you mocking me?" Axel had never been fond of sweets or pastries, but he knew full well that Saïx had somewhat of a weak spot for anything sweet. He laughed and nudged him softly.

"Honest, it would be nice with something sweet. If there's no dessert, let's go down to the village and see what they have to offer. A place like this should have a killer bakery, what do you say? It'll be like a date." Axel teased with a wink.

"Yeah, whatever." He smiled, and it wasn't one of those routine polite smiles that Axel had grown accustomed to see, he was genuinely amused. It was mesmerizing to see this change, it made the decision of forgetting about Aqua a lot easier.

"Finally, food." Cloud sighed when Axel and Saïx put the big plates on the table. "Where's Zack?"

"He's coming."

Zack hurried out, holding a bowl where he had put the chopped basil. He put it on the table before he took a seat next to Saïx and across from Cloud with a huge grin on his face. He reached for a bottle of cider from the freeze box and poured up for everyone.

"Alright, this looks really good. Let's hope that the insects don't think the same." He said and reached for his glass to make a toast, "For Saïx's recovery and for a damn nice day."

"Cheers!"

Axel savored the slightly sour taste of the cider and took another sip to decide whether he liked it or not.

"It tastes like apple-juice with bubbles. Does it have any alcohol?"

"Only a little. It hasn't been added, it comes from the apples. We have a neighbor up the street, he has a load of apple trees on his land and in autumn the macaque monkeys come out of the forests to eat the apples. The thing is that they can be quite lazy so they take the apples that have fallen to the ground. The apples have fermented in the warmth so when the monkeys are into their fourth or fifth apple they're all loaded."

"They get drunk?" Saïx asked as he reached for a piece of the Salmon Florentino pie.

"Yeah. They look like small humans, wobbling about through the village. It can get dangerous because some of them are angry drunks and we get tourists from Echizen up here, and there's always someone pushing their luck and getting too close to the drunken monkeys."

"That's why we have a squad from Animal Protection every autumn," Cloud added, "There weren't any angry drunks last year though, they all fell asleep around the trees and didn't bother anyone."

"Sounds like you'd fit right in, Axel."

"It takes more than four fermented apples to bring me down. Although it would be cool to have a drinking game with monkeys – real monkeys. Guys, expect our company this autumn. We'll be coming back to eat fermented apples with the monkeys."

"You're always welcome here." Zack smiled, "Let's eat! The smell is attracting the flies." He waved off a small fly that was buzzing in his ear.

Two and a half weeks had gone by since the day they had all met. It was the longest they had stayed anywhere since Kobe, the mood had gone up and down, they've had their fair share of drama, but in the mist of it all they had gotten to know two wonderful people who had taken them in with a hunch that they could be of help.

Cloud had just served the apple pie when they heard someone yell and bang on the front door. Cloud hurried to the door and Zack followed when they realized that a girl was screaming for help; someone had been hit by a car.

"Stay here," Zack yelled from the hallway out to the back.

"It's like the freakin' E.R." Axel mumbled and took a mouthful of the pie on his plate, "Talk about catching a break though, what are the odds that you'll find two capable doctors when you randomly go knocking on doors?"

"She's probably from around here. She sounded young." Saïx sighed, "How is it possible to get into a car crash here? There are no trees by the roads and there's almost no traffic."

"Maybe," Axel began and reached for the pitcher with custard, "Maybe the driver had one too many fermented apples and angered a monkey that messed with his brakes."

"You're awful."

"And yet I'm not the one laughing." Axel grinned and decided to pour some more custard over Saïx's plate as well. He looked up at the road when he heard a car and saw that they had taken Cloud's car to the scene of the accident. He almost dropped the pitcher when he saw a familiar someone suddenly appear on the road when the car passed by.

Naminé smiled at him and shook her head in disagreement with what she was seeing. She flickered and pointed in the direction where Cloud and Zack had driven off to, her expression darkened as she turned her attention to Saïx. Saïx's voice became a soft echo that was drenched out by the hammering beat in Axel's chest when Naminé flickered again.

"Axel," she said, and he could hear her just as well as if she had been standing next to him, "Time is running out."


	16. Where the Hidden Truth Lies

********************Title:******** ************Last Train******************  
><strong>Author:<strong> ******************nikki_ntm******************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ******************Shattered Apocalypse******************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ******************16/20******************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** **************Drama/Adventure/Suspense**************  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**** **********M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.******************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ ******Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).******************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** **************Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.******************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ******************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**Chapter 15: Where the Hidden Truth Lies**

**~ooo~**

**2008**

**~ooo~**

Arlene watched the black car drive away from the mansion, and though she knew that Seifer could easily catch her if she tried to escape, she kept on pulling back until Seifer's hold slipped, and for a split second she thought she could get away, but Seifer grabbed her by her arm again and dragged her into the foyer, his fingers digging deep enough into her arm to leave bruises.

"Seifer, please, let me go. There's nothing I can do, I'm not of use anymore. Seifer!"

Her pleas echoed in the grand foyer. Nothing had changed here during the year she had managed to stay underground. The sweet smell of the blooming flowers outside in the backyard spread through the beautiful foyer, and she noticed the hawthorne flowers in the bouquets that seemed to have taken over the ground floor of the mansion. She still got sick of seeing the paintings that once had decorated her childhood home, and this time Lea wasn't around to make it all bearable.

"Where are you taking me?" She was still struggling to pull out of his grip. Seifer's silence was worrying her. There had been no taunts, no threats of violence, not even a vague explanation.

"Why are you working on this alone, Seifer? Where's Raijin?"

He suddenly stopped in his tracks; he loosened his grip on her arm, and turned around slowly. His eyes were red and swollen as if he had gone days without any sleep, and his shaky sigh as he looked at her scared her more than anything else.

"Seifer…"

"When you go in there, you do whatever he tells you to do, alright?" He walked in closer and lowered his voice, "_Whatever_ he asks you to do, Arlene. Don't fight back, you can't afford it. There is _no one_ willing to help you out of this mess. Don't lie, don't talk back, just do what you have to do."

"No, Seifer, please, I don't want to see him —"

He didn't turn around to face her until he pushed her into a room with nothing but a simple table and two chairs.

"That's all I can do to help you, Arlene. Just do what he says."

The thick door slammed shut, and Arlene stood there looking at it for a few seconds, waiting for it to open, but once again she was met with nothing but that heavy silence.

There was no telling how long she sat in there, she couldn't look out because there were no windows, and there were no clocks in the small room, but when the door opened again, her heart skipped a beat.

She stood up, a nervous smile dressed her face. She could charm her way out of this, or she could at least try.

"Liam…"

"Sit down, Larxene. Marluxia won't be joining us today."

"Isa…?"

"Saïx," he corrected and stepped inside.

Seifer walked behind him, his head down and his hands clasped together at his front. The Seifer she knew would never bow down to Isa; she had witnessed firsthand the agony Isa had put Seifer through, everyone in the family knew how much Seifer despised Isa, and yet he stayed by the door like a perfectly trained dog with no will of his own.

"What's going on?"

"Sit."

She sat down. Her legs were trembling at the sight she was beholding, and yet she had a feeling things were going to get worse.

"Seifer, the gun."

"But, you haven't even—"

"The gun, Seifer."

Isa didn't raise his voice, he didn't even have to look at Seifer to silence him and make him follow through with the simple order.

"Why do you need a gun, Isa?"

"It's Saïx to you, Larxene," he corrected again as he sat down across from her.

"Did Axel send you?"

"To do what? Save you?" He smiled at her softly, "That does sound like something he would tell me to do, but my responsibilities lay within the family, and you're not family. Not for much longer."

"You're scaring me."

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you as long as you do as you're told."

"How will you explain this to Axel when he finds out that you've had me at gun point, huh? You think he'll let you get away with it?"

"I don't think he'll be able to do much from where he is now, to be honest with you. See, the tables have turned. He needs my help much more than he needs your 'company'. That is why I have arranged our little meeting in all secrecy to give you the opportunity to leave the family, just like you've always wanted."

He slid a file across the table and flipped it open to put a glossy black pen right by a blank space underneath a block of text.

"What's this?"

"You're going to file a divorce. All you have to do is sign these documents to be free from us."

She skimmed through the document, but only fragments of it stuck with her. It said date of marriage, place, duration, and her heart was beating so hard in her chest at the dark look in Isa's eyes. He wasn't supposed to know about this. This had been something spontaneous that they had done, it had felt right, things had finally been going their way, and Lea had thought that he could protect her better if they were married.

It had been her request to keep this from Isa. She never told Lea the reason why, she had simply asked him to trust her, and he had. Isa wasn't as inconspicuous with his emotions as he thought he was, some things showed more than others, and Arlene wasn't blind.

"Cat got your tongue?" He tilted his head slightly to catch a glimpse of her face, "Did you really think that I wouldn't find out? You've been living on my dime, Larxene. Of course I'd keep an eye on my investments."

"You can't do this."

"But I can, Larxene. Who's going to stop me? _Axel_? You? Or maybe Seifer has something to say about it?" He turned to Seifer, but he was shaking his head long before Isa had his eyes on him, "Not even your own boss is willing to stick his neck out for you."

"Screw you, you lunatic. I'm not signing these papers, so kindly shove them up your ass."

The sudden feel of the cold metal of the barrel's tip against her temple made her almost choke on a scream as Isa pulled the trigger. The pathetic click from the empty slot was a loud gunshot in her head, and for a moment she thought that she was dead.

"Sorry, my fingers slipped," he said softly even though he was still pressing the gun against her temple. "Sign the papers, Larxene. I've already won, haven't I? You're on the run, living the life of a pitiful dog, alone. Axel chose to stay with the family."

"You mean with you."

"I was trying to be polite, but yes, with me."

"Go to hell."

The second click got her to tense up in her seat and hold her breath. Seifer stood in his corner, witnessing this cruelty, and he stared at Arlene with a pleading look.

"There's one bullet in this gun, and I will keep pulling the trigger until you either sign the papers or die."

"Where's everyone?" She said instead to gain time to do something, anything. Her voice was shaky, and there was a lump forming in her throat at the realization that she might have no other choice but to do what Isa was asking of her.

"In Tokyo. The university was holding a memorial for Zexion as a token of their gratitude for the generous donation made in his name two weeks ago, and because he was loved and admired by his peers, of course. It's sad that it only takes one person to hate you for your life to come crashing down. Or end abruptly."

There's a monster hiding underneath that façade of kindness, she used to tell Lea whenever the conversation became about Isa. It wasn't something she said to be mean, it was something she saw reflect in his eyes whenever he held something in, like that evening at the Kobe Port Tower. Lea would always stand up for him, even when he was in doubt, and there had been a time she had admired that quality about him, but when she stared straight into Isa's eyes that radiated nothing but murderous intent, she knew that she had been right all along.

She grabbed the glossy pen and signed her name on both of the documents.

"You can gloat all you want, _Saïx_, but remember this; you had to lock him up behind bars to keep him close. He was leaving with me by choice, and I'm pretty sure that makes you the loser."

Arlene had taken a beating before, but she had never been hit so hard that she had lost consciousness, and she had never thought of Isa as one to hit a woman. In normal circumstances, maybe he wouldn't have, but he knew that she was telling the truth, and even the truth could hurt a monster like him.

**~ooo~**

**Present**

**~ooo~**

Axel tossed around in his futon and glanced at the clock above the door when he heard Cloud and Zack open the front entrance downstairs. It was past three in the morning and he had been up for at least four hours now. He couldn't close his eyes without seeing the never ending nightmares, and he couldn't deal with them anymore.

"Axel?" He mumbled.

"Yeah?"

"Can't you sleep?"

"I'm getting there, I just have a lot on my mind right now. I have to unwind before I can get to sleep."

Saïx inched closer to the side of his bed and he looked at Axel through his eyelashes. It was hard to see if he was still asleep, awake or a mix of both.

"Does it really bother you that much that I die in your dreams?"

"I thought you were allergic to stupid questions," Axel chuckled.

"Does it?" Saïx asked again.

"Of course it does. Jeez. That's why I'm up half of the night just to make sure you're still breathing."

Saïx didn't say anything to that. He pulled his covers higher up and sighed. Axel didn't expect him to understand, it was difficult to explain to someone how the same nightmare for nearly four months could make you paranoid. He knew that it was weird for him to worry so much for Saïx when he was fully capable of looking out for himself, but again, seeing that nightmare over and over again had changed him and he couldn't just turn his back on it.

"I've never blamed you, Axel," Saïx said in a low whisper, "I did this to myself – and I guess that I'm glad that you haven't given up on me yet. Despite everything."

Axel sat up and moved in closer to see if Saïx was asleep. He was acting strange again and last time that had happened, things had not ended well. Axel shook him slightly when he saw that his eyes were closed, but Saïx simply turned around and cuddled up against his other pillow with a soft mumble.

Axel flopped back onto his futon and was just about to try to go back to sleep when he heard that Cloud and Zack were walking up the stairs.

"_You're not gonna tell him?"_

Axel held his breath when he heard Cloud and Zack whisper to each other out in the hallway. They stopped halfway up the staircase and he could hear Zack sigh.

"_You gotta admit that it's weird. All of this. I can't wrap my head around it and I don't think they'd tell us if we asked them."_

"_You don't know that." _Cloud sounded tired, like this had been the topic of the day and it was starting to wear him out. _"All you should know is that you're going to tell him. We don't know who she is or what relationship she has to him, either way it is your duty to contact the next of kin of the patient you're taking care of and according to her, Axel is her next of kin."_

"_Yeah, but, look at it like this; Saïx just got out of a delicate situation, they're both on edge and they clearly need a break. This can be their break. You said yourself that Saïx might be suffering from PTSD. God knows what they've been going through, what they've seen or what they're running away from. That girl didn't give me good vibes, Cloud. We can get them out of whatever mess they got in, we can't risk pushing them back in with the piranhas." _

Axel walked closer to the door and waited for Cloud to reply.

"_Zack, I know you want to help, but this isn't a decision we can make for them."_

It was silent for a second while Zack tried to think of an argument that could win Cloud over, but he ended up sighing in defeat.

"_I'll tell him. Tomorrow morning. In a couple of hours. What was the patient's name again?"_

"_Arlene Kenzui." _

Axel pulled the door open before he realized that he was doing it and he gulped as he stepped out and closed the door behind him. Cloud and Zack looked back at him, waiting for him to say something.

"What happened to Arlene?" He knew that there were at least another hundred questions he should be asking, like did they know why was she here, and why would she want to see him?

"Let's go downstairs. Cloud, you can go to bed, I got this."

Axel followed Zack downstairs. They sat down by the dining table in the kitchen and Zack sighed again, leaning back in his seat with a frown.

"C'mon, say something. What happened to her?" He was shaking his leg impatiently.

"She was in the car accident earlier today. A young blond girl I thought was her sister came to get us, but then she disappeared. We asked Arlene about her, but she didn't remember being with anyone else. We asked her if there was anyone we could call and she said Axel, and then she described you. She's Ansem's daughter, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she is."

"You don't have to go and see her. She's fine, she just needs rest. There were no broken bones, no ugly wounds, just a very mild concussion. You have to get yourself straightened out before you can help anyone else."

"You should be worried about her, not me. She left the family long before I did, she tried to save me but I turned my back on her. Something must've happened, something bad if she wants to talk to me." He wasn't going to worry Zack by telling him that the girl he mentioned was probably Ansem's hologram of revenge that haunted him every night.

"She was in a car accident, isn't that bad enough?"

"No. Can I go and see her now?"

"It's almost four in the morning, Axel. I think it can wait 'til later."

"I have to go now."

He got up and walked into the hallway, Zack followed him and stopped him just as he was about to go upstairs.

"Where are you going?"

"Upstairs."

"I can see that, but why? The hospital is that way."

"I have to tell Saïx."

"You can't."

"Why?"

"Because she doesn't want him to know." Zack rubbed his forehead, "It's just, you and your friends are going to drive me nuts with all your little secrets. I don't know how it's possible to live like that. She told me to tell you, but to keep Saïx away from her."

"Yeah, that sounds like something she would say."

"If Saïx wants to reach you, he can call me on my cell phone. I'm sure Cloud will tell him that. Let's just go and get this over with. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see you."

"You obviously don't know her at all."

Axel smiled and scratched the back of his neck. He followed Zack out and jumped into the passenger seat with a sigh. The ride to the hospital would be far too short to gather his thoughts. Arlene had to be involved in this somehow if Naminé had led her here. She had been marked too, but she had gotten out of it. That's what she had told him, and he would hate it if he had been the one to pull her back in again.

Five minutes. Axel sighed when he stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut. Five minutes to the hospital was nothing and his hands were tingling at the thought of having to walk in there and face Arlene. He wasn't here on a mission, he wasn't here because he wanted something from her, he was here because she had asked him to and that hadn't happened since before the night Zexion was murdered.

Zack greeted the nurses and led Axel into the long hallway behind the big white doors. To think that he had been here just a couple of days ago caring for Saïx, the man that had come between him and Arlene, the man that had been ready to sacrifice her in order to give Xemnas more power.

"She's through here." Zack pointed at a door in the far left, "A nurse woke her up a moment ago, she's ready to see you. I'll be around, oh, and here's my cell phone." He gave Axel the cell phone, "My page number is on speed dial, number seven. Give me a call when you're done."

He gave him a pat on the back as he walked back out to the waiting room and left Axel to it. Axel put the cell phone in his pocket and walked down the hallway and all the way up to the door that led into Arlene's room. Zack had said that the car accident hadn't been anything serious, just a slight concussion, and yet he felt guilty. Not guilty for the accident maybe, but guilty for how they had last met. He had forced himself back into her life with the intention of destroying the normality she had built up for herself by exposing the truth about her to whatever new boyfriend she had. How typical of him to feel guilty long after he had done the deed.

Axel walked into the room and closed the door quietly behind him. The only light in the room came from a small lamp above the bed where Arlene sat in her hospital gown.

"Nice of you to show up," she said and looked up at Axel who still stood by the door.

"I got here as fast as I could."

"That's hard to believe, especially since you're supposedly five, maybe ten, minutes away from this hospital." She sounded bitter and she glared at him. This had to be bad news.

"How do you know where I've been?"

"That hologram told me. She started to show up around the house soon after Xigbar found me."

At least Xigbar had a soft spot for her, but Axel could see why she was bringing it up and why she would think a visit from Xigbar would be bad enough, she thought it was his fault that the family was after her again.

"I didn't tell him anything. I wouldn't have found you if Saïx hadn't known where you lived."

"And you don't think it's weird that Saïx would just leave after finding out that I had sent Marluxia after you?"

"Saïx hasn't been in contact with the family. What about Marluxia? Maybe he spilled the beans? He's not the most reliable guy around and Xigbar has a way of making Marluxia talk."

Arlene sighed. She rolled a hair tie off her wrist and put her hair into a pony tail to keep it from falling over her face. She had let it grow longer, Axel noticed, it looked wavier now that she hadn't had the time to fix it.

"Why did you want me to come here?" Axel asked, finally, when the silence stretched for too long.

"Leon is gone. He would never leave without saying anything and that goddamn hologram has been saying cryptic stuff about his disappearance and I think that Marluxia kidnapped him to piss me off. He's... I didn't want him to get involved in this life, but..." She shook her head softly, "I have to find him. And the hologram said that you knew the way."

"What? How would I know? I'm up to my neck in my own problems, I don't have time to be looking for your lost boyfriend. Why would Marluxia even bother kidnapping someone, huh? You know Marluxia, probably better than I do, and he wouldn't kidnap someone that's completely useless to him."

"But he did and you're going to help me find him. That's the least you can do for me after all of these years, Axel."

"You must have hit your head harder than the doctors think. I'm not getting guilt-tripped into doing this. What if he ran off with some other girl? I'm sure there had to be someone on the side, pulling his strings far better than you did."

That had come out on its own accord. It wasn't something Axel had planned on saying, he hadn't come here to be mean or rub it in her face that she wasn't cut out for a normal life, but he still couldn't find it in him to apologize for what he had said, even when it became obvious that Arlene had already thought of it and knew exactly who that other could have been.

"He's not you, Axel. He's not the kind to come with empty promises just to leave me hanging, but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you? You think that all relationships are about deception, to use or to be used. It's the only thing you know because that's what you've learned being next to Saïx for all of these years. You're the only one who doesn't see the way he manipulates you into doing everything he wants. You're the only one who can't see that he knows how you see him, as a fragile and scared person who needs to be saved, and he plays you so well too."

She glared at him intently. This wasn't the first time she had said this, nor was it the second. It had taken a long time for her to make Axel realize this the first time, but her influence over him wasn't as strong as Saïx's, and in the end she had lost. Axel had to know that this was true somewhere in his mind, but he didn't want to see it. He had the same problem now that he had back then.

"Axel, you know that it's true. He's been doing it all this time and you have to see it now, because if you don't, you'll help him ruin the life of many others. He had planned to murder Zexion –"

"Arlene..." Axel cut in sighing loudly as he ran his fingers through his hair and started to pace.

"You know that he did, Axel! You can't keep turning away from that. He planned it. He was climbing ranks from the second he joined the family, he nestled in with Zexion and waited for the exact right moment to stab him in the back. Oh, and to top it off, he got his stupid revenge on Zexion. God forbid that anyone took anything away from him. You told me this yourself, Axel. Everyone in the family knew that Zexion was up for second in command, but Saïx had to take that away, just to show him that he was better – to show him how well he could do without that scholarship."

"Seriously, stop it, Arlene. That doesn't matter anymore."

"It does matter! He used you to become more powerful. He killed Zexion knowing that you would take the blame for him. Axel, please. He's in on this too. The hologram must have shown you, he was there during the experiments. He knows everything about Aqua and I know that he will use her to take over the family."

"You know what? It was a waste of time coming here. You're not even making any goddamn sense anymore. Aqua is just an experiment, there's no way that Xemnas or anyone of the high-ups would even batter an eye at that." He turned around, reaching for the door knob to leave.

"Aqua is Xemnas' wife, Axel." Arlene sounded surprised that Axel didn't know, "You knew that, didn't you?"

Axel rested his head against the door, closing his eyes tightly. He really couldn't deny it. Naminé had shown him Saïx stand there, observing Xemnas while he and another lab assistant experimented on Aqua. He clenched his fists tightly as his thoughts raced. It didn't make sense.

"You're lying," he said, keeping his back to Arlene.

"No, Aqua is Xemnas' wife."

"Why would he experiment on her then? No one does that to someone they love. That wench showed me how they drenched Aqua in a tank of water – I know that each and every one of us in this godforsaken family is screwed up. Royally screwed, okay? But to experiment on their spouse?"

"It's not like that, Axel. Aqua suffered an accident that made her lose her memories. It was like a mental breakdown and she kept forgetting things and Xemnas tried to fix her with the help of Ansem."

"How do you know that? Who told you?"

"The hologram did, she showed it to me in the same dream that she showed me Aqua being experimented on. It was after the tank, she was on a stretcher and I could hear Xemnas talk to the lab assistant when he sees that she is waking up. Aqua called him Terra. Xemnas almost seemed human in that dream."

"Fuck..."

He hated how this was starting to make sense. Ansem regretted doing the experiments so as a last act of repentance he made a hologram that would rescue Aqua from being exploited. That hologram was telling Axel to find Aqua and protect her from Saïx, that's why Xemnas ordered Saïx's death in his nightmares every night because Saïx wanted to use Aqua as leverage to become the leader of the family.

Saïx must have known of Ansem's plans, that's why he had sent Axel there in hope that he would kill Ansem and attract the hologram that would lead them both to Aqua. This was the only reason Saïx was going along with him, he was using Axel to get what he wanted. Just like he always did.

"How long do you have to stay here?" Axel turned to face Arlene.

"I can leave whenever I want to."

"Get your things ready, we're leaving."

"Do you have a car?"

Axel dug into his pocket and pulled out Zack's car keys, "I'm borrowing a friend's car."

Arlene got out of her bed and pulled aside the door to a closet and reached for her clothes and the bag that she had taken with her. She was just about to pull the curtains close when the cell phone in Axel's pocket went off. He reached for it and looked at it to see if it was Zack calling from within the hospital.

"I'll wait outside. Hurry up." Axel walked out of the room and closed the door after himself before he answered. The caller-ID said 'home' which meant that it was probably Cloud calling to check up on them and make sure that they were okay.

"Hello?" He held the phone away from his ear when it sounded like the person on the other side of the line was scraping the phone against rocky pavement.

"Hello? Cloud?"

He gulped when he suddenly heard a sob and he hoped dearly that it wasn't Cloud, maybe he had left his phone at the Psychiatric Ward and maybe this was a patient of his calling.

"_...Lea...help me..."_

Axel's legs nearly folded underneath him when he heard Isa's voice through the phone and he had to remind himself of what he just had concluded to not give into whatever it was Saïx was trying to do.

"What are you doing?"

"_I can't take this anymore. I'm about to do something very stupid if you don't stop me. Lea, please, help me. I don't want to be here." _

"Why don't you talk to Cloud, he'll give you something to calm you down."

"_Call me back when you hear this. I won't bother you after this." _

A click and the conversation was over. It had sounded like a prerecorded message, but it had come from Zack's and Cloud's house which meant that it had to be Saïx calling. Axel had to fight the urge to run back to the house and make sure that Saïx was okay. He didn't act this way. Saïx wouldn't stoop this low.

Arlene walked out of the room and looked up at him, "What happened?"

Maybe that was his answer.

"Nothing. C'mon, let's go. I just have to leave a friend a message."

"What friend?"

Axel ignored her and hurried out to the reception desk where Zack stood, talking to some of the night shift nurses who were on a break. He frowned when he saw that his patient had come with Axel and he was clearly about to say something about it when Axel interrupted him by first giving him his car keys.

"You have to go back now," he said, "Saïx just called me and he was really weird. I think he might injure Cloud if you don't go there and stop it. Go armed with a baseball bat or something. He's dangerous, Zack. A cold-blooded murderer."

Zack stood frozen for a split second while trying to comprehend what Axel was saying, but that split second was all it took. He didn't stick around to ask him what he was talking about, was he lying, why was he bringing the patient with him – nothing. He took off, caring for nothing else but Clouds safety.

"How are we supposed to get out of here now?"

Axel walked out on the parking lot and stopped by the car that had taken him this far, "I still have the car you gave me. I didn't want to use it since Saïx might have bothered to memorize the license plates, but this is as good as it gets so get in."

He didn't look back as he drove to the main road in Echizen. He had been beating himself up for months now, wondering why he couldn't do anything right, wondering why he couldn't go through a single day without having to compromise what few principles he had left. Those questions had been answered now, they had been answered a long time ago, but he was too blinded to see what was obvious from the very beginning. All he could hope for now was that it wasn't too late to make things right.

**~ooo~**

"Cloud!"

Zack ran into his home, clutching a baseball bat that had been resting against the fence, near the entrance, as he took in the sight of the crashed frames on the walls, the glass on the floor and the obvious signs of struggle in the living room.

"Cloud!"

He ran upstairs and looked through every room, hoping to find him alive. There were no traces of blood anywhere and there was no smell of it either. Zack ran back to the hallway when he didn't find Cloud upstairs. His heart was beating fast and he almost felt dizzy with panic. This was his fault, he shouldn't have let two complete strangers into their home, and he knew he shouldn't have.

"Zack, in the kitchen."

Zack dropped the baseball bat and hurried into the kitchen, quickly scanning the room. He saw Cloud's hand behind the kitchen island and he hurried up to him.

"What happened? Cloud, who did this to you? Saïx?" Zack sank to the floor in front of Cloud and saw the blooming bruises on his face. Cloud had taken out a small bag of frozen peas from the freezer and put it against his left eye.

"No, it was some guys I've never seen before. I think they were from the yakuza. They took Saïx."

"He must've put up quite a fight."

Cloud snorted, "You'd think that he did. The punches I got weren't because we fought back. This one guy thought I was Saïx so he hit me while I was asleep. The other two that were with him pulled him away and found Saïx while I ran after them. Saïx must've pulled rank on them or something because two of them turned against the third guy - I think his name was Marluxia? Anyway, he was gagged, tied up and dragged away. He's the one who turned this place upside down."

"Saïx went with them willingly?"

"I wouldn't say willingly, he knew that he didn't have a choice. He said that he had to go after Axel. Isn't he at the hospital?"

"No." Zack sighed, "He escaped with the patient he went to see."


	17. Further From You

**********************Title:******** **************Last Train********************  
><strong>Author:<strong> ********************nikki_ntm********************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ********************Shattered Apocalypse********************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ********************17/20********************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ****************Drama/Adventure/Suspense****************  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**************** M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.********************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ ********Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).********************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ****************Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.********************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ********************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x**

**Chapter 17: Further From You**

The sky was clear and the night was warm. They had stopped at a lonely rest stop with nothing but a restroom and a few vending machines. There weren't even any functioning lamp posts and so the stars shone even brighter. Axel lay on the hood of the car, his hands behind his head as he looked up at the stars.

It was too warm to sleep in the car. That, and he didn't want to fall asleep with Arlene there. It would feel weird sleeping under the same roof after so many years. Besides, someone had to be on guard. With Axel gone, Saïx didn't have a reason not to contact the family and Axel feared that they could show up at any moment to silence them forever.

They had waited for Naminé to show up and give them a clue as to where they should be going next, but in the two days they had been on the road there had been no sign of her anywhere. Just some glimpses of the same old nightmares, as if Axel didn't have them memorized by now.

Arlene jumped up on the other side of the hood and lay down next to Axel. She had been quite pleasant to hang out with these past two days, not that they had been talking much. She was silent most of the time and only asked him general questions. Axel hadn't tried to initiate conversation either, it just felt weird being on the road with her after all this time, and yet he felt more relaxed than he had done with Saïx.

"Are you angry?" She asked, keeping her attention on the sky above them.

"No. Are you?"

"A little, yes."

"You sure you don't need a chocolate bar or something?"

"Funny."

"I thought you'd think so."

Axel wondered how long they could keep this up, dancing around their unsolved past and ignore it completely while they were forced to cooperate. Arlene disliked him enough already, it wasn't like she could dislike him more for bringing up touchy subjects.

"Were you happy?"

"Axel..."

"It's a simple question. Yes or no. You don't have to elaborate."

She sighed and glared at him from the corner of her eye briefly, "Yes."

"Was he?"

"I think so."

"Was he better than me?"

Arlene sat up and shook her head in disbelief, "I'm not answering that question."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't compare, Axel. And my relationship with Leon is none of your business." She jumped off the hood and crossed her arms, keeping her back to Axel.

"You made it my business when you asked me for help."

"Alright, you wanna know?" She turned around to face him, "Yes, he was better than you. In everything. Mainly because he didn't ditch me for no reason at all. He respected me and I even came to feel like I mattered."

Axel sat up, an incredulous look on his face, "No reason at all? My reasons were far more legit than any reasons he'll ever have. I was in prison, Arlene. Not because I got a kick out of it, but because I was –"

"You chose Saïx over me, Axel. That's what happened. You filled my head with these stupid ideas of freedom and a normal life and when I needed you the most you left me hanging. Don't piss me off by sugarcoating it," she sighed. "Let's not talk about this anymore, we'll just end up fighting. It's like you said, it doesn't matter anymore."

"...I wouldn't have done it if I'd known."

She smiled at him, it was the first time he had seen her smile in years, and it was ridden with regret and resentment. He knew that he was responsible for most of it. He couldn't imagine what heartbreak he had caused her for always putting her second and he would probably never know it either.

"Axel, you did know," she said in a soft voice. She put an end to their conversation there; she got into the backseat and slammed the door shut, leaving Axel out on the hood of the car by himself.

There was no escaping his past. He should know that by now. He lay back down, watching the stars, it was a good thing that it was still warm outside or he would be freezing his ass off during the night. Arlene would probably not let him in the car, or maybe she would, but she would find a way to show him that she was still discontent with all the choices he had ever made.

He stuck one hand into his left pocket in his pants and found a small leftover paper of one of the chocolate bars Saïx had nicked from that gas station. Maybe he should call and make sure that Cloud was okay - Saïx had been really strange when he last called. He pulled out the cell phone Zack had given him and he stared at it.

What would he say? Would he tell them to tell Saïx that he had run off because Saïx was a liar who did nothing but lead him behind the light, and that he should be ashamed of the monster that he was, and that he should look out for himself and stay away from the family to not end up in harm's way?

"Saïx, what the hell are you doing?" Axel mumbled.

What was the point of having power of the family when all they did was make other people suffer? Axel figured that he had become too comfortable with the life he had been living, he had forgotten how it had been living in the slums, working at the fishery, counting each nickel to make it through the month – as it was now he couldn't understand why anyone would want to be a part of their family.

Had that been what Saïx had felt before he was forced to join?

Arlene was right in a way. He did let Saïx manipulate him, he knew that he shouldn't expect Arlene to understand, he wasn't sure he understood it himself. He just knew that he never wanted to see that look of complete resignation in Saïx's eyes again; he preferred him angry rather than hurt. Saïx was much stronger when angry.

His eyelids were feeling heavy. He thought that he would just doze off and wake up as soon as his nightmares began, but they didn't. For the first time in months, he wasn't haunted by the same nightmare, he saw something else. He was back in his neighborhood in Kobe, calling for Isa from down the street. He looked up at the window and waved at him when Isa's mother tried to pull him back in with a scold on her face.

Isa stepped away from the window, but he waited because he knew that Isa was running down the stairs to meet up with him. "Don't worry about my mom, she'll be mad for a while, but I think that she kinda likes you for hanging around," Isa would say whenever he knew that Lea had seen that scold on her face.

He felt genuinely happy when he saw Isa through the long window on the door. How old had they been when Isa had colored his hair blue for him? Thirteen?

Lea ran his fingers through his own fiery red hair absentmindedly when he realized what time this was, and how that sense of anxiety vanished when Isa tried to be different with him, even if it angered his mother.

"_If the Fire Rat were ever to take on a human form, it would look like you."_

Isa opened the door and stopped to hold it up when the grumpy landlord walked up to him, mumbling under his breath like he always did.

"_Isa!"_

He knew Isa could hear him, he turned around to face him and he smiled, but he shrugged and looked down. Naminé had taken him by the hand and she was pulling him away. It didn't look threatening; the shining sun, the soft breeze, the blooming flowers in the small flower beds hanging from the windowsills made it all look so peaceful.

Naminé turned to face him and her giggle echoed throughout his dream, _"I tried to show you, Axel. But you were too afraid of the demons."_

Axel woke up with a gasp.

It was morning, the birds were chirping and he saw a car drive off the parking lot and back onto the road. Arlene stood by him, her hand on his arm to calm him down.

"It was just a dream," she said gently. She didn't stay close for long; she held up a deep plastic plate with food from one of the vending machines and pulled off the lid. "Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm fine."

Arlene sat down next to him to eat her breakfast. She didn't seem to be angry anymore, but Axel couldn't care less about that now. He had that sickening feeling in his gut again, the same feeling he got when he knew that he had done something terribly wrong. He felt an urge to get in the car and drive back to Cloud and Zack as fast as he could and bring Saïx with him to that laboratory in Kyoto.

Naminé must have meant the safe. Axel hadn't let Saïx open the safe because he had been afraid that he was letting out more of those monsters.

What if the answer to all of this had been in that safe?

"You should at least eat something. We won't be able to stop during daylight."

"You're talking to me now?"

"I just thought it would be best to get along. At least while we're trying to find Aqua and Leon. I know that I've been difficult to deal with, it's just that it's so easy to fall back into old habits when I'm around you. What happened back then was for the best, for the both of us, I guess. We just have to find a way to put it behind us when we're here, in the present."

Leon had to mean a lot to her to want to 'get along'. He couldn't remember her having problems with keeping a grudge before, and last night she seemed more than willing to hang onto the grudge she had against him for all she was worth.

"Fine."

He rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms wide. He slid off the hood to stretch his legs, but just as he was about to step away he felt Arlene's hand on his right hand and he looked down at it to see that she was looking at what he had left of his pinky finger. He never thought of it much, he didn't even bother to hide it even though his missing pinky was more evidence of his choice of lifestyle than any tattoo he could ever flaunt.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore."

"Do you remember why you were punished?"

A small smile played on his lips. Yeah, he remembered. He knew Arlene did too. She was the first one he had gone to after it had been done. She had taken him to the doctor's office to make sure that it wasn't infected. She hadn't scolded him, she had sheltered him when he didn't want to go home or face Isa.

"Yeah, I got in a fight with Seifer. He was forcing Saïx to join. I needed to be disciplined for putting someone outside the family first."

"If I remember correctly you beat the shit out of Seifer. Last time I saw him he still had a crooked nose."

"When did you last see him?"

She tensed at the question, but she shook it off fast enough to keep Axel from noticing, "At the train station. On the night that I escaped."

"It always comes back to that, doesn't it?" Axel sighed.

"Yeah..."

"We're like a broken record on an endless loop. Tell you what, whoever mentions our past in the future owes the other one a hundred yen. The penalty fee goes up a hundred for each time anyone of us mentions it."

"Our past in general?"

"...well, we're allowed to mention the good parts."

"There were good parts?" Arlene crossed her arms and frowned, pretending to think hard about her past to see if there had been anything good to remember.

"Also, distasteful jokes will cost you 200 yen, and it will duplicate for each joke."

"In that case you better have a fortune in your pockets."

"Same to you." Axel stuck his tongue out and stretched again, "You have any of that food left?" He walked around the car to get the plate, but Arlene hurried away from him with a smile on her lips.

"Oh, so now you're hungry?"

"I can't eat when I'm upset, Arlene. Give it."

"You'll have to come and get it." She laughed when he reached his hand out and tried to grab the plate as she backed away with a mischievous look on her face.

Axel chased her around the car and suddenly they were both eighteen again, running down the small patches of beach by the many harbors in Kobe, building castles in the sand that the sea soon came to claim. It had been their haven away from reality once upon a time. It had been dearly missed when they realized that it had been destroyed, the ruins of it was now enough in this small space of time out in the middle of nowhere this far up north.

"Ugh, forget it. It's not worth it." Axel breathed and stopped.

"What is it, old man? Tired already?"

"Twenty-eight is not old. For a man."

Arlene gaped, "I think you owe me 200 yen."

"Come and get it, and make sure not to break your hip."

"That's 400."

Axel laughed and furthered the distance between them, he backed up until he suddenly bumped into someone. He gulped and turned around quickly. His trail of thoughts came into a halt when he saw Kairi stand there, looking up at him with a smile. He glanced at Arlene and saw that she was seeing her too. At least he wasn't losing his mind.

"K-Kairi, what are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"Did you have a fight with Saïx?"

"What?"

"Who is she, Axel?"

"You're running out of time, Axel. You have eleven days."

"Eleven days? But Dr. Even said seven months."

Kairi suddenly flickered between herself and Naminé. Axel stepped back and watched Kairi slowly return to looking like herself.

"Forty-nine days. Seven weeks. You have eleven days left. Xemnas is breaking into the system. He will undo the marking and it will destroy you." Her voice broke and she made a metallic white noise that suddenly disappeared as she flickered again, "Akashi Tsuchiyama Hospital. They have him."

Akashi Tsuchiyama Hospital. He had heard of that place, he must have passed it by or heard it mentioned somewhere. He repeated the name in his head over and over to not forget it. His body felt heavy as he looked at Kairi who shifted between her two shells.

"Who do they have?" He heard Arlene ask.

"He tried to show you the nest. The demons had to be released without breaking the wall." Kairi smiled again and hummed, "_Gogo ichi ni..._"

She was gone within the blink of an eye, not leaving as much as footprints on the humid soil she had stood on. His chest clenched with panic, he had to lean against the car to not sink down to the ground and close his eyes to stop everything from spinning.

"Axel..."

"Shut up, I need to think."

It had been almost forty days since he kidnapped Saïx, thirty-eight days ago to be exact. That was Naminé's point of reference because this wasn't just about him, it wasn't even about Aqua. Axel was shaking, his hands had gone cold and he was breathing heavy like he had been running miles and miles on end.

"_He took something from me too, and I need to know what it was."_

Axel walked around the car and opened the door to the driver's seat, "Get in the car."

"Not until you tell me what the hell that was about."

"Get in the fucking car or I'll leave without you." He slammed the door shut and got the car going. Arlene tossed the plate she had in her hand in the bin and hurried into the car. She had barely closed the door when Axel stepped on the gas pedal and drove back onto the road.

"Axel, where are we going?" Arlene reached for the safety belt and buckled up as she felt herself sink into the seat of the car when Axel sped up.

"Akashi Tsuchiyama Hospital."

"How do you know that she can be trusted? She said herself that Xemnas was breaking into the system. What if Saïx is helping Xemnas to break it so that you can lead them to Aqua? You can't just – "

"Will you shut up for just one second?" He sighed loudly, "It's not him. It's not Saïx. I'm fucking stupid." He gripped the wheel so tight that his knuckles were turning white.

It would take hours to get to Kobe. They were close to the northern city Akita, they had planned on going to Sapporo and lay low while trying to search for answers. That was when Axel thought that he had months left. He glanced at the clock above the radio – 11:30 a.m. If nothing came in their way and if they didn't get stuck in any traffic jams they would be in Kobe by the middle of the night.

Axel could only pray that it wasn't Marluxia who had found Saïx first. Saïx knew how to control most of the members of the family and many members of the family knew better than to mess with Xemnas' handpicked vice chief – Marluxia, however, cared for neither.

**~ooo~**

Dr. Even walked down a long corridor on the second floor of Xemnas' mansion. This had become a home over the years, there had been a time when these walls had been empty, and it had lacked the warmth that it had even now. He passed by family pictures, pictures of travels, memories that had become real but built on a breakable lie, and they founded the life of their Superior.

He stopped by the beautifully patterned paper-door that stood ajar. Xemnas sat by the bed where his beloved lay, as unresponsive as she had been these past two weeks. He held her hand and talked to her so that she wouldn't miss a day of this nearly perfect existence that he had created for her.

It had been four years now since Aqua last had broken down. She hadn't rejected the false memory of Terra and she still had memories of her old life, although they had been slightly altered with the help of Saïx's memories and experiences. The work he had done on the psychological barrier and the precautions he had taken in changing the physiology of Saïx's brain were two things Dr. Even took much pride in. His work would have been flawless if it hadn't been for Axel meddling and Ansem's constant fear of the punishment from a God that didn't exist.

The sirens had worked as well, but he had forgotten to count on one little variable that had rendered his system useless; the brutes.

Marluxia had nearly ruined what was left to salvage, but Xaldin's loyalty had been proven useful. Both Xaldin and Demyx had kept Marluxia's mouth shut while they escorted Saïx back to Kobe, and much to Marluxia's misfortune, Xigbar had been the one to wait for them. Xaldin hadn't waited long to tell Xigbar all about Marluxia's plans.

Dr. Even lowered his head and pulled the door aside and took one step in.

"Sir, Saïx has been taken to Akashi Tsuchiyama Hospital as you requested. I have made the preparations necessary to assist you in the re-establishing of the foreign brain tissue as well as for the psychological training afterward. Your spouse will be back to her normal self in no time."

"How is he?"

"Well, all things considered. He has suffered from spontaneous bleeding, nausea, and he has been falling in and out of consciousness. However, he has shown improvement these past twenty-four hours. I believe that he is reacting to the familiarity of this environment, but he is mentally frail and he has damaged the foreign brain tissue around hippocampus."

"And Axel?"

"According to the collected data from Ansem's hologram, he is on his way over here. He should be here in approximately three hours. Should I tell Xigbar to have them taken care of?"

Xemnas leaned over Aqua to give her a peck on her forehead, standing up and giving her one last look before turning around to face Dr. Even. He was wearing a black tailored suit, it was nothing out of the ordinary and yet he looked strangely powerful.

"No. Let him come. Larxene is with him, isn't she?"

"Yes, sir. She is."

"You can tell Xigbar to let Marluxia be and get him to gather his men. I'm sure Marluxia will know how to torture them both enough for them to get an idea of what they have put me through this past month."

Xemnas was a man who always got what he wanted. The woman he had wedded was proof of that. Once Xemnas had set his eyes on something or someone, it was only a matter of time before he got his way and it was strangely exhilarating for Dr. Even to have the chance to observe how Xemnas used all of his means to reach the goal he had decided on.

Neither Axel nor Arlene had much of a chance now, although given Marluxia's past they might be able to outwit him. Marluxia was intelligent from what Dr. Even had seen but he was easily consumed by jealousy, and it made him weak.

"The car will be ready in a half hour. Would you like me to send two assistants to fetch her or would you rather bring her to the car yourself?"

"I'll take her to the car. We were going downstairs now, anyway." Xemnas picked her up in his arms gently and walked past Dr. Even with certain steps.

They made the perfect couple, Dr. Even mused. The humble woman next door had the most powerful man in Japan wrapped around her little finger and she was completely oblivious to it, and he would step over carcasses to keep her as a part of his life. It baffled Dr. Even that Aqua would have said no to that. She had been set on fulfilling her dream of becoming a well-respected politician, one of the few women in the Diet, but to achieve it she couldn't be spending time with 'a petty boss from some criminal organization'.

Life sure worked in mysterious ways, he thought as he walked after Xemnas. He watched him place Aqua on a comfortable armchair and then he pulled aside a thicker door to reveal their beautiful garden.

Dr. Even reached for the cell phone he had in his lab coat and he called Xigbar.

"_Yeah?"_

Dr. Even wrinkled his nose in distaste at the heavy breathing from Xigbar, "Xemnas wants you to leave Marluxia alone. He is going to be at the hospital when Axel gets there and he needs to be conscious and not all bruised up."

"_But I was just getting started."_

"I'm sure that's plenty. You might want to save up some of that for later, Larxene is with Axel and Xemnas wants Marluxia to take care of them both while we restore Saïx. Have you understood the orders?"

Xigbar mumbled profanities under his breath while he surely glared at Marluxia, _"Yeah. Understood. Catch ya later, four-eyes." _

Dr. Even hung up with an undignified snort and stepped outside to get some fresh air before his second grandest achievement in science took place.

**~ooo~**

"Axel, are you sure about this?"

They were still in the car, looking at the Akashi Tsuchiyama Hospital from afar. They were waiting for some kind of movement, something suspicious that would confirm that something strange was going on. If Saïx was as important as he had heard many claim then there should at least be five bodyguards in the vicinity.

"You don't think your boyfriend's in there?"

"No, I don't."

A black car drove past them and they both sank down in their seat to avoid being seen. It stopped by the entrance to the big main house and as it did, two men in white lab coats stepped out to greet the men that stepped out of the car.

"Shit..." Axel couldn't believe his eyes, Xaldin and Lexaeus were the ones to step out of the car. They pulled out someone out of the backseat in a big white cloak. Could it be Saïx? Axel tried to catch a glimpse of the person in the white cloak but they disappeared into the house before he could do anything.

The black car drove off and they were once again sitting in silence. Xemnas wasn't going to leave anything to chance it seemed. He hadn't even brought in low ranks to do the supervision.

"Stay here. I'll find Saïx and come back out as soon as I can." Axel unbuckled the seat belt and reached for the lock on the door.

"You can't just leave me here. I'm going with you."

"No, you won't. Did you just see who walked in there? Xaldin and Lex, they will both kill you in the blink of an eye if they see you."

"Right, and they'll welcome you with open arms."

"No, but I know that I can outrun them. Xigbar is the only one in the family who would even consider putting his neck out for you, Arlene, and if this is Xemnas' pet project, he won't batter an eye if Xemnas decides to off you. If they catch me..."

"...Saïx will vouch for you." Arlene finished for him.

"If I get caught, call 'home' on this cell phone." Axel reached her the cell phone he had in his pocket, "It's the number to the doctors who took care of you. Go back there, they'll know what to do."

"Don't get caught, Axel."

He got out of the car and closed the door softly. With one last look at Arlene he headed into the main building of the hospital, hoping that he would find Saïx quickly so that he could take him away from here. It never once occurred to him that the family was already onto him and that maybe he should have turned around one more time to see Demyx walk out of the shadows and towards the car where Arlene was waiting.


	18. Beast of All Saints

************************Title:******** ****************Last Train**********************  
><strong>Author:<strong> **********************nikki_ntm**********************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **********************Shattered Apocalypse**********************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> **********************18/20**********************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ******************Drama/Adventure/Suspense******************  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**************** **M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**********************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ **********Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**********************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ******************Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**********************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **********************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x**

**Chapter 18: Beast of All Saints**

The hallways were dimly lit and, much to Axel's relief, he had yet to encounter anyone. He had never been this tense in his entire life. The slightest change in the buzzing of the lights made him stop in his tracks and strain his hearing so hard that he was sure he could hear a strand of hair fall onto the floor. So far the building looked like any other fancy hospital; he hadn't seen any chambers of torture or heard any strange screams from anywhere, just the insistent buzzing from the dim lights.

Every time he had to look around a corner he stopped to hold his breath before he leaned forward. It was fair to say that he was petrified of what Xaldin and Lexaeus, especially, would do to him if they caught him. He hadn't dealt much with Lexaeus after the night Zexion was murdered and he was glad for that. One hit from Lexaeus and he would be a smashed fly to the wall. Xaldin, on the other hand, would probably take it easier with him; he did have a certain respect for Saïx.

"Is it time soon?"

In speak of the devil and he doth appear. Axel held back a curse and nearly evened himself out with the wall. Xaldin and Lexaeus stood further down the hall, around the corner from Axel. The odds were against him now. He was aware of how certain he had come off when telling Arlene that Saïx would save him from a death sentence if he was caught, but he did fear that Saïx might feel vengeful for being abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

"It's a quarter past twelve," Xaldin said, "They should be in the lounge in about fifteen minutes."

"Shouldn't you be going?"

"As long as you promise to behave."

Axel assumed that Lexaeus must have nodded or something because he could hear Xaldin walk down another hallway. He stood perfectly still until he could be sure that Lexaeus had walked away as well. The lounge – Axel looked around the hallway to find a map of all exists in case of an emergency and found one on the wall across from him. The lounge was a couple of hallways and turns away from here. He repeated the turns quietly to himself and decided to run when he thought he heard Lexaeus come back down the other hallway.

If the meeting was supposed to occur at 00:30 then Saïx would be there earlier. Xemnas would be the one to show up at that time. That gave him a few minutes to maybe fight off some of Saïx's followers and he could try to convince him that he needed saving in the meantime. If Saïx didn't want to understand, he would have to punch him out again, but he had to be careful, he didn't want to cause him anymore damage. That was his plan. Faulty at best and downright stupid at worst.

He slowed down when he saw the big lounge ahead. It looked like a vault with its high ceiling and its many arches. The floor was tiled in marble mosaic. There was sadly no big chandelier hanging from the ceiling. That could have been a part of plan B. There were lights down the walls that looked like torches and the silence here made the hairs on his arms stand up.

"You're early."

Lexaeus grabbed him by his hair with brute force and forced him back and then onto the floor. Axel didn't even try to fight back, Lexaeus could crush his head with the iron grip that he had on him and he much preferred to wait for Saïx's mercy than to go in a fist-to-fist fight with this man.

"I was told that you had company."

"You can't believe in everything you hear, Lex. I mean, I've heard things about you that aren't entirely true." He bit into his cheek to not let out any sounds when Lexaeus pulled him back. There was going to be a huge bold spot after this, if his hair hadn't been pulled out already.

He suddenly snorted and Axel looked up when he heard footsteps from another hallway that ended up here.

"Saïx is going to have a field day with you if that's him, Lex."

"So you still think that he would vouch for you?" He could hear Lexaeus' smug smile like he knew something that Axel didn't. He couldn't even bring himself to answer the question. "Maybe he would," Lexaeus continued, "but do you know whose death sentence he would sign under instead?"

Axel's heart skipped a beat when he suddenly heard an all too familiar yelp come from the other hallway. Two figures walked into the big lounge and he saw Arlene being pushed forward by Demyx who looked awfully pleased with his new Taser gun. Her hands were tied behind her back and her hair hung over her face. At that moment Lexaeus decided to cuff Axel before he tried to do anything stupid.

"I don't think he would even bother taking her outside. Maybe he would just order Marluxia to finish her off right here, and then he would grant you all the mercy you want."

"Arlene! Are you okay?" He tried to pull on the cuffs, he even tried to shake out of Lexaeus' grip, but to no use.

"I've been better." She looked at him through locks of blond hair with a small smile on her lips. Her body suddenly tensed when Demyx tasered her again, and she fell onto her knees.

"No talking," he said with a frown, "The same goes to you, Axel. I'll keep raising the voltage on this gun until I electrocute her if I have to."

"You fucking brat," Axel mumbled under his breath. This was going to hell. How was he going to get Saïx out of there and save Arlene? Maybe he should just focus on getting Arlene out and come back for Saïx later. He did still have ten days left before deadline. Ten days was plenty for him to get Saïx back and to find Aqua. Xemnas couldn't keep Saïx by his side at all times and when he looked away Axel would snatch him.

Plan C was probably the best plan he had come up with yet. Now he had to find a way to escape from Lexaeus, uncuff himself and get to Arlene before Demyx went through with his promise. All of it had to be done before the rest of his beloved family showed up and complicated things.

"Fuck..." He breathed when he heard more steps come from the hallway to his left. He never thought he would feel as relieved as he did when he saw Xigbar walk out with the man in the white cloak. Maybe his plan could work after all. Xigbar would only have to take one look at Arlene to give the order of her release.

"Not late for the family reunion, are we?" He pushed the man in the white cloak forward so that his hood fell back. Demyx bowed his head, not for Xigbar, but for his boss – for Marluxia. Xigbar had been let loose on Marluxia if the bruises on his face were anything to go by, Axel mused. There was no way Xigbar would let them harm Arlene.

"Where's the guest of honor?"

"They should be here any minute now," Lexaeus replied.

Axel could see that Arlene was trying to avoid looking at Xigbar to not come off as she was pleading him to save her. Each second that went by was a waste of time and Axel couldn't understand why Xigbar wasn't doing anything. He was the one of highest rank in this room, he knew that Arlene had nothing to do with this, he could just let her go.

When steps could be heard from the hallway to Axel's right, they all turned their attention there, waiting for them to show up. There was no turning back now. Xigbar had missed his chance and so had Axel. There was no way that he could overpower them all and get Arlene safe and sound from here.

Saïx walked into the room, followed by Dr. Even, Xaldin and a man Axel had only met once before in Tokyo, Luxord. They had sure cleaned him up. Saïx looked now like the powerful man he was in his tailored suit, fancy shoes and carefully done hair. It was unsettling to see how quickly he had fallen back into old routines after what they had been through out on the roads.

Axel tried to get Saïx to look at him, but he didn't even get a glance.

They all bowed when he entered the room, even Axel was pushed down to bow and he could only imagine the glee Saïx must be feeling at being back with the family again. They weren't given any time to stand up properly before Xemnas walked in through the big entrance across from Axel. It was unbelievable for Axel that Saïx would gladly bow as deep as he was after all Xemnas had been putting them through, but then again, he had never properly understood him.

Axel was pushed back up and he gulped at the heavy and dominating presence of Xemnas as he walked forward, seemingly weightless, like he didn't have a care in the world. He walked up straight to Saïx with a slightly concerned look on his face.

"I'm glad that you are well, Saïx. We've been looking everywhere for you."

"I apologize for the inconvenience I've caused."

Axel hated the person Saïx became around Xemnas. He lost his own will and became an extension of whatever it was Xemnas wanted him to be. It was sickening for him to see and he wasn't going to let Saïx fall into the trap he knew Xemnas had set up for him.

"Let's make you better, Saïx. Dr. Even has told me all about the damage you've been caused while you were gone. You trust me to make it better, don't you?"

It was frightening to see that gentle smile on Xemnas' face when Saïx nodded slowly. He was putting his life in Xemnas' hands willingly and he didn't even seem to fear what it was Xemnas was going to do; he was blinded with trust for the man that would be his perdition.

"Saïx, don't go with him!" Axel had to grit his teeth when Lexaeus grip grew tighter.

He wasn't going to stay to hear him out; he didn't even want to turn around to face Axel. He stared after them when Xemnas reached for Saïx's arm and they both stopped.

"He's talking to you, Saïx. Aren't you going to dignify him with an answer?"

"No."

"Please, Saïx…I can explain everything…"

Xemnas simply raised his hand in Axel's direction for Lexaeus to silence him with a quick pull on his hair. No one else uttered a word. The way Xemnas trapped Saïx in an imaginary bubble where only the two of them existed was morbidly fascinating to witness. They were in a room full of people, and yet, Saïx's attention never wavered from their superior.

"I give you permission to leave with him right this moment if that's what you wish, Saïx." He tilted his head slightly when Saïx looked away from him briefly, and he reached his hand out to brush away a stray hair from Saïx's face, "Do you want to leave?"

"Don't let him manipulate you. Saïx, you have to listen, he'll end up hurting you. He's using you. You have to trust me –"

"Look at him," Xemnas interrupted as he spoke to Saïx in a gentle voice. Saïx did as he was told. He turned to look at Axel. The indifference in his eyes hurt more than the fact that he was simply following Xemnas' orders, but Axel had faith that he could still reach out to him. Even when he was distant and seemingly out of reach, Saïx let him in. This time was no different, Axel was certain of it.

"Come with me."

"Are we done?" He turned back to Xemnas for confirmation. A small nod was all he needed to not have to look back at Axel again.

As Xemnas stepped forward, Lexaeus forced Axel to stand back up on his feet to face Xemnas properly.

"Axel, few have angered me as much as you have and lived to tell the tale. You nearly took away my most valued treasure and now I'll take yours in the best way I know how."

Axel tried to wriggle out of Lexaeus grip, he needed to make Saïx understand that he was digging his own grave by going with Xemnas, "Please, let him go. He's been nothing but loyal to you – just, please…"

"It's a little late for this, don't you think? You had your shot, Axel. I gave Saïx a choice. This is as far as you got."

Xemnas walked past Marluxia and gave him a nod that made Xigbar frown slightly.

"Saïx! If you go with him I swear it's the end for us. Saïx, come back!"

Saïx walked off with Xemnas and Dr. Even while Xaldin and Luxord stopped by the entrance to stand guard. Marluxia stepped forward, taking off the white cloak to reveal that he was wearing his suit just like everyone else. He barely dared to glance at Arlene when Xigbar had him under his watch, but he still sneered when he faced Axel.

"Long time no see, brother. How about we take this opportunity to catch up?"

**~ooo~**

Marluxia was walking ahead of them while Lexaeus and Demyx made sure that Axel and Arlene didn't try to escape. Xigbar was following them, uncharacteristically silent. He had yet to say anything for Arlene's sake which had led Axel to believe that Arlene was going to be punished under Xemnas' orders, there was nothing Xigbar could do without betraying the head of the family.

In the basement they were led into a big storage room where there were pipes coming down the ceiling and into the floor. Both Axel and Arlene were cuffed, each to a pipe on one side of the room, both facing an empty wall in front of them. Arlene looked feverish from all the electric shocks and Axel worried that she was going to faint if she didn't get proper medical attention.

"Xigbar, c'mon. She has nothing to do with this. Look at her." Xigbar was passing him by but stopped in his tracks when Axel spoke to him.

"You're damn right, she has nothing to do with this. I told you that before you went into the big house. I also told you to stay the fuck away from her to keep her out of it. Did you listen?"

"Xigbar," Lexaeus called from the doorway. This was going to be Marluxia's time to shine. He turned away, and faster than Axel could comprehend, Xigbar reached him a small piece of metal before he walked out of the room. It would take some time to get out of the cuffs with this, but now they had a chance at least.

Demyx walked out with Xigbar, but handed Marluxia the Taser gun before he left. They closed the heavy metal door and suddenly, with Xigbar gone, Marluxia slowly turned into his normal, entitled self.

"You have no idea how long I have wanted to show you this, Axel."

"Is it going to be prettier than Xigbar's rearrangement of your face? Because I think it's going to be difficult to top."

"I hope for your sake that you'll be able to maintain that lovely sense of humor after this. You'll need it."

"So you brought us here to show us a tape?" Axel chuckled as a projector lit up the empty wall in front of him, "You have lost your touch, Marluxia. Either that or Xigbar really scares you."

Marluxia grabbed Axel by his throat and pushed him up against the pipe that he was cuffed to, "I'm not afraid of anyone. After this you won't be around anymore, Axel, and there won't be anything to stop me from finally ending Saïx's time as the second in command of this family. You'll get to watch, Axel. You'll get to watch while I bend him after my will." He laughed and nodded in agreement with himself.

"What about Arlene?"

Marluxia seemed near obsessive when he slowly let go of the grip he had on Axel's throat. He chuckled as he looked at Arlene and then back at Axel.

"If Xemnas could get Aqua to love him, I can do the same to Arlene. I'll make her forget all about you, about that other lowlife. I'll be the center of her universe and she will help me control the most powerful family in Japan."

"You don't think Xemnas will try to stop you?"

"Xemnas will fall together with Saïx. Haven't you noticed how close the two are?" He was trembling with excitement, like a scientist on the verge of a breakthrough and he couldn't stand still, the thought of what possibilities lay ahead was almost too much for him to keep in. "Xemnas speaks to him differently, treats him differently – I'm sure you've noticed that he even smiles at him. I've always asked myself why Xemnas would care for someone as replaceable as Saïx. Do you know why, Axel? What do they remind you of?"

"Fuck you."

Marluxia titled his head to his side slightly and didn't even try to hold back the wide smile on his face.

"You've heard this before, haven't you? Did Saïx use to pine for you, Axel? Were you his knight in shining armor?" His smile grew at the stern look on Axel's face, "He found a great rebound, wouldn't you say? I'll tell you what they should remind you of, Axel. A newly wedded couple. In a way, that's what they are."

"Shut the hell up!"

"Oh, that's right. You weren't invited to the wedding. I'm sure Saïx hasn't said anything about it either. Not that you should be jealous because you have feelings for someone else. Someone who Saïx has been so very keen on chasing away."

Axel was going to say something in his defense, but whatever he was about to say died in his mouth when he saw Isa projected on the wall. He was wearing his old clothes; a turtleneck to hide his tattoo and the gray sweatpants from the mini market by the fishery.

"_Dr. Even said that it was urgent. What can I do for you, Isa?" _

"_I've thought about your proposal. I'll do it if you promise me that Lea won't go to jail."_

"_I can't promise you that, Isa. Everyone in the family would be outraged if he isn't punished for what he did to Zexion. Unless, of course, it was all a mistake, then maybe I could do something to diminish his time in jail."_

"_How long?"_

"_Three years."_

"What the hell is this?" Axel fidgeted where he stood. Marluxia simply shushed him and leaned back into the chair he had sat in as he looked back at the wall.

"_Think of how much better it will all be if you confess your crimes, Isa. I've read your file. You can't sleep, you don't eat and it doesn't matter how much you punish yourself, Lea could still go to jail for the rest of his life for protecting you. And you can't commit suicide because that would render Lea's sacrifice into nothing, wouldn't it?"_

Isa looked down on his hands and he nodded slowly at Xemnas' question. He seemed exhausted, his shoulders were slumped and his eyes were sunken.

"_Three years, right? You'll let him go after that?"_

"_If he chooses to leave, yes."_

"_You'll have to keep me alive until then. I have to see that he's released like you promised."_

Xemnas chuckled and Axel could see that he leaned closer to his desk. Isa was nervous, but he seemed determinate enough.

"_What do you think the goal with my experiments is?"_

"_I don't know. Play around with my organs to see how long you can do it without me dying?" _

"_No. I'm interested in helping you, Isa. I can make all that guilt go away, I can erase all those bad memories and give you new ones. You can be whole again, Isa. I can turn you into a person who can deal with the life that you've been dealt, so that you can be close by Lea when he gets out of jail." _

The screen flickered and a wave of white noise went across it. The sound broke into small static noises until it became muffled whimpers and the waves of white noise became thinner until the image changed. The angle had shifted. The camera stood on a table and was filming the event from the side. There was water dripping from the stretch board ahead and the constraints of leather were visible, even from there.

Xemnas turned off the electricity on the machine he was maneuvering and walked up slowly to the stretcher. Marluxia smiled wider at the startled gasp he heard from Axel.

"_Why are you crying, Isa? This can't hurt more than it did the first time. Are you having trouble controlling your thoughts?"_

"_You were going to make it stop." _

"_I am, that's why I'm putting you through this. We have to change the way your brain connects your thoughts, it's going to be difficult for you to control them. The ones that are strongest, your memories, will emerge and you'll see them while awake and while you sleep." _

Isa pulled on his restraints and tossed his head around in an attempt to get away. Xemnas reached down by Isa's side for something that looked like a piece of cardboard and grabbed Isa by pressing his cheeks hard enough to make his mouth open.

"_You'll need this to not bite your tongue off." _He forced it into his mouth and reached for transparent tape on a small trolley behind him and put it over Isa's mouth to prevent him from spitting it out. He stepped away and set the machine on; sending another wave of electricity through Isa's body.

The cuffs were cutting into Axel's wrist the further he tried lean forward, but the pain completely escaped him as he was forced to hear Isa's anguished and muffled screams. He was dizzy with anger and for a minute he forgot that this had already happened.

"_You'll make a good other, Isa."_

"Turn it off!"

"And have you miss the greatest movie ever made? You haven't even gotten to the part where they drive him insane. That's really the best bit, when they don't know who they're going to get. Is it Isa, the poor broken young man who only wanted to save his _best friend_ or Saïx, the indifferent scientist who thinks he's there to observe the experiments being done on a psychotic patient? Nothing is more amazing than having Saïx do a report on Isa with a straight face – although, it gets really interesting when they start implanting Aqua's memories in him."

It was getting harder to breathe through the lump forming in his throat that was causing a burn down his chest and threatened to make his eyes water. He blinked the tears away and tried to ignore the footage in front of him as he used the small piece of metal Xigbar had given him to break free from the handcuffs. He glanced at Arlene and saw that she had sunken to the floor and hidden her face against her knees.

He tried to put all of his attention in both Arlene and the cuffs to ignore the sudden humming coming from Isa where he sat in a clinically white room by an equally white table. He didn't even seem to be aware of the fact that he was humming.

"_Isa, can you tell me where you were during the week?"_

"_Gogo ichi ni sanpo shinagara..."_

"_Who taught you that song, Isa?" _

"_Dr. Even."_

"_Why is that?"_

"_It will save me from the demons." _

"_That's right, Isa. What happens when the demons are out?"_

"_The sky will scream."_

"_And?"_

"_Don't scratch the wall." _He sighed, _"Never scratch the wall."_

"_Isa, can you tell Saïx to take you into the laboratory and prepare your water session?"_

Axel stopped and had to look as Isa's face changed into that of someone callous and soulless. The Saïx he was seeing now seemed to be completely detached from Isa and all of his memories.

"_The subject should be ready for the next step in the process. He has been indoctrinated with the safety procedures in case the wall should weaken. Dr. Even said that he wouldn't be able to modify the subject's brain matter until the first memories were implanted. This is the time."_

"_I'm glad to hear you say that, Saïx." _

Axel felt the cuffs click, but he held them in place. Marluxia hadn't noticed anything. He exhaled slowly to rid himself of some of the cocktail of emotions he was feeling and to keep himself from jumping on Marluxia and beat the living daylights out of him, or the few daylights Xigbar had left for later.

"Axel."

The three of them looked up when Naminé showed up with that gentle smile on her lips. She was flickering all the time now and she was transparent.

"The hacking is almost complete. They will try to undo Ansem's last act of redemption. Saïx is his last chance to undo the hurt he caused by helping Xemnas keep Aqua by his side. Saïx is keeping her alive. You're the only one who can break the wall. It's weak now, break it before they redo the experiments."

Marluxia tried to hit her, but she simply reappeared on another place in the room. Her voice was metallic and she was breaking into pixels.

"What if I hurt him?"

"I can delete you, Axel."

She vanished before Marluxia could try to hit her again. Axel took off the handcuffs and hurried up behind Marluxia just as he turned around to walk back to his chair. Axel smirked as he clenched his fist and planted it against Marluxia's face. He fell backwards against the wall, holding his hands over his face when he felt an old wound open up again on his eyebrow.

"Not so cocky now, huh?"

He clenched his fist again and sent a blow against Marluxia's chest and heard something crack. Xigbar really had gone all out on him, no wonder he had decided to sit down all throughout his little film screening. He grabbed Marluxia by his throat before he could roll into a ball, pinning up against the wall hard enough to feel his heartbeat through his thumb.

"Where are they?"

"You think they'd tell me?" His smile looked wicked with the blood running down his face.

"No, I don't, but you would know anyway."

"I'd rather die than tell you anything."

Axel's eyes flashed dangerously and he came in close, "Oh, but you see, Marluxia, I would never kill someone as well needed as you. That sounds more like something Xigbar would do, no? How about I call him in here and have Arlene tell him all the sick things you were planning to do? He doesn't have to know the truth, right? He just needs one single excuse to torture you enough to make the ninth circle of hell seem like a walk in the park."

Marluxia didn't even have to think about it and it was gratifying for Axel to see the terror in his eyes at his threat.

"Third basement floor."

Axel let him go and quickly took the Taser gun that Marluxia had left on the small table by the door and gave him a small shock. It was enough to knock him out briefly and leave him immobile for a while**.** He hurried up to Arlene and got her out of her cuffs and helped her up on her feet.

"Hey, are you alright? Can you stand?"

She nodded and stepped back, "I'm sorry you had to see that, Axel. I didn't know that he had..."

He pulled her into a tight embrace and he had to swallow the lump that quickly formed in his throat, "I didn't know either." He looked down on the floor to avoid seeing whatever it was that was projected on the wall.

"You should go after him. I'll stay here. I have to know where he keeps Leon." She broke the embrace. "I'll come after you as soon as he tells me where Leon is."

"No, you go and get him right away. Unless he's upstairs with the giants, in that case come and get me. If not, run for it, Arlene. Run and don't look back. I've got this covered." He smiled at her and he had to quickly swallow before the lump had any chance to reform, "Here, take this. If anyone tries anything funny, shock 'em with all you've got. Even if it's Xigbar."

He hurried to the door and pulled it open, hoping that there was no one outside.

"Axel." Arlene looked at him from where she stood, "Don't die, okay?"

"You know me. I'm immortal." He gave her one last smile before he ran down the hallway and into the elevator that would take him to the third basement floor. He hoped for Arlene's sake that they wouldn't have to meet again. She deserved to live the normal life that she wanted so badly and she deserved to be happy while living it.

The elevator stopped at the third basement floor with only a light as an indication of where he was, and then the doors slid open.

"Axel."

Naminé stood waiting for him out in the hallway. The dim fluorescent lights around her flickered in her presence and she pointed down the hallway.

"You must hurry. Break the wall."


	19. Forget me not

**************************Title:******** ******************Last Train************************  
><strong>Author:<strong> ************************nikki_ntm************************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> ************************Shattered Apocalypse************************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong> ************************19/20************************  
><strong>Genre<strong>:**** ********************Drama/Adventure/Suspense********************  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**************** ****M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.************************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ ************Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).************************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** ********************Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.************************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> ************************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

**x**

**Chapter 19:** **Forget-me-not**

Arlene had cuffed Marluxia's hands behind his back. He was too heavy to move closer to the pipes where she had been tied up earlier and she was afraid of him waking up. She had the upper hand, she knew that much and yet she gripped the Taser gun tighter in fear that it would slip out of her hand and render her helpless if Demyx and Xigbar decided to walk back in.

She had found the box fuse for this room and she looked at the cables going from one side to another, giving life to the projector that showed nothing but awful things on the wall, things that her father was responsible for and things that she had lived through herself.

Without another thought she gripped the cables and tore them out of the box. The projector died and the emergency lights lit up in the room and she turned around to see that there was nothing being displayed on the wall, the screams, and voices of indifference had gone silent and she could finally breathe easy.

Marluxia moved slightly and Arlene hurried up to him, ready with the Taser gun in case he tried to get up. She was strong, but she was certain that Marluxia could easily beat her in physical strength.

"Liam." She kicked at his foot lightly to see if he was awake.

It was strange the way they had come to this. He had just been one of her many costumers. Sure, he had that little extra something, that dangerous glint in his eyes and even a sophisticated air about him, but he had been a costumer nonetheless.

He had been in Japan for two weeks when he first stopped by the hostess club down at the harbor of Kobe. Liam Rau had been a member of the triads long before he became Marluxia of the Ingô-family, and maybe he had been a nice guy once upon a time, but he had always managed to frighten Arlene with his imposing presence and that same attribute had been appealing.

"You're going to regret this, Arlene. Just like you'll regret every other decision in your life."

"I don't regret anything," Arlene mumbled as she reached for the rope she just had noticed behind a stack of books on the table Marluxia was leaning against.

"Yeah, you do. You regret being with Axel, you regret waiting for him, you regret the life you got into and you regret falling for that new idiot who'd sell you for a bottle of water."

He winced as his brain registered the pain from the hits to his body. Xigbar never pulled on his punches and for a split second Arlene allowed herself to worry for the beating Marluxia had taken, but she quickly shook it off.

"Where's Leon?"

Marluxia chuckled and looked up at Arlene, "Gone. Probably to a place where you'll never find him."

"What did you do to him, Liam? If you've hurt him –" Her voice trembled and she turned up the voltage on the Taser gun unconsciously as she glared at Marluxia with spite.

"Hurt him? All I did was to tell him the truth, Arlene. It was all it took. He looked tough, I'll even admit that I thought that I would have to pull out my big guns to get rid of him, but the notion of your past life and the double life you've been living now was enough to make him run."

She didn't want to see that look of pity in Marluxia's deep blue eyes when he gazed at her, she preferred him to be cruel so that she could hate him instead of making her hate Leon. Marluxia wasn't lying to her, he had done many things over the years, but he had never once lied to her and maybe that was one of the things that frightened her the most about him.

"I wasn't living a double life! You brought this on to me, I didn't need to know that Axel was on the run! I didn't need to get dragged into your stupid plan of revenge! I was living a good life before you came in and wrecked everything!" She tried to hold back a sob.

"You dropped everything when you thought Axel was in danger, Arlene. You agreed to my plan when you thought that you could make him pay if only a part of everything he had done to you. You were still living the life you thought you had left behind."

"Either way, it was my life, and you have no right to dictate it." She leaned in closer, gritting her teeth as she inhaled slowly to calm herself, "If there's a next time for us, Liam, I'll kill you where you stand."

If he planned on saying anything in return or not, Arlene would never know. She tasered him and stood back up to walk out of the room, never once looking back as she hurried down the long corridor and back to the elevator.

She knew what she wanted to do next. She had to find Leon and have him tell her if what Marluxia had said to her was true or not. She had been abandoned through someone else before, it had taken her a long time to get over it. If Leon wanted to dump her for what he knew about her, he would have to tell that to her face.

There were no doubts left in her mind as she stepped out of the mental institution, this was the last time she ever put up with her former family, and that was final.

**~ooo~**

He had been walking in circles. The rooms in this long hallway were connected to each other, some rooms could only be reached by walking through other rooms. Naminé hadn't showed up to help him either, and he figured that he should just go in the direction she had pointed out for him until he reached a dead end.

He was in the room in the far right of the hallway, trying to find a door or a secret passageway, but without avail. The room didn't seem to have anything ordinary either. It was filled with the usual lab stuff that he was growing tired of seeing; test tubes, weird chemicals, empty cages, and shelves with books.

The lights suddenly buzzed and brightened more and more. Some of the lights couldn't deal with the energy surge and they exploded one by one until the surge went away and the few remaining lamps flickered briefly.

"Shit..."

Axel turned the place upside down, trying to find anything that could help him get to Saïx before they did him in. He couldn't stop and think about what he was feeling to not break down, but the images of Isa in Xemnas' laboratory haunted him, the way he had spoken like his life meant nothing to anyone, how he had been forced to relive trauma that should have been left in the past; all of it echoed in his mind.

"Axel."

This could possibly be the first time he had felt relieved at hearing the voice that had tormented him during so many nights. He turned around to face Naminé.

"Where is he?"

She smiled, "You have eleven days left."

"I know!" Axel pushed a stand of test tubes off the table behind him with an exasperated sigh, "But he doesn't! Naminé, you have to work, just for a bit longer. Where is Saïx?"

"They are trying to get rid of you. You are hindering them from strengthening the wall."

"Please, Naminé, tell me where –"

She disappeared and Axel stood back, reaching for a metal bar by one of the big shelves when he heard someone approach the room with unnervingly calm steps.

Dr. Even stepped forward slowly, putting his hands in the air to show Axel that he meant no harm. He stopped by the doorway and glanced at the mess Axel had made and he stared back at him with a slightly disapproving look.

"Are you looking for something in particular, Axel?"

"Where's Saïx?"

"Why would it matter to you? He doesn't want to see you after your little misadventure out on the roads, especially since you weakened him and then led us to him after all of your empty promises."

He smirked at Axel's confusion. Of course he wouldn't know what he was talking about, he had just learned of the things that had been done to Saïx and judging by the time it took Axel to get here, Dr. Even would say that Marluxia failed to show him all of the wonderful highlights of his research.

"What do you think the marking is, Axel? A symbol of impending doom, magically created by an insane scientist?" He saw Axel put his hand over the marking on his neck, "It's a tracking device. That's how Ansem's hologram could find you and since it stores all of its data, it was made easy for us to find what we wanted. Although, I must admit, I was forced to believe in luck when you left with Larxene. Were the dreams the hologram showed you confusing?"

Axel walked up to him and grabbed him by his collar, gritting his teeth, barely keeping himself from bashing this man's face in.

"I'm the only one who can help Saïx get better. I'm the only one down here who knows where he is. You can't harm me, Axel. Not any more than I can harm you." He chuckled when Axel pushed him away and stared at him intently. "You're coming with me willingly then?" He asked amused as he started to walk down the hallway. Axel followed, leaving the metal bar behind to keep the temptation of bashing Dr. Even's head in at bay.

Dr. Even used a key in the elevator that unlocked three more floors. The lights turned red as soon as the elevator passed the first unlocked floor. Axel gulped, but Dr. Even didn't seem at all fazed by the change. This was his playground.

The doors slid open and revealed a wide corridor where different images were blaring through white noise that broke into different sounds, almost like someone was zapping between channels.

"What the hell is this?"

"Subliminal messaging. It's quite an effective way to communicate with a person's subconscious. It's particularly effective if said person is in a weakened state of mind."

The images flashing on the walls didn't seem to follow any specific pattern, but Axel could see that some of them were repeated more than others. The noise that came through was the most disturbing of all. It changed from commercials that Axel hadn't heard since he was a child to a woman singing a lullaby to birds chirping in a forest to a woman sobbing uncontrollably. And then came that strange sound Axel had heard in his nightmares. It sounded like someone was talking to him through water.

"Why are you doing this to him?"

"Because he volunteered, and the experiment worked."

Axel stopped Dr. Even and made him turn around, "What experiment?" He needed to know more. Marluxia hadn't shed much light on the matter; Axel didn't even know what was true and what wasn't.

"Oh, you didn't see that part of the movie? He was used to keep Aqua's brain from deteriorating. Everybody won on the deal. I got to experiment and put my theories to the test, Xemnas could keep his beloved one, Aqua could live an oblivious life instead of trying to solve the problems of the world, and Saïx... he got to be near you without driving himself insane with the life he was living."

Dr. Even didn't seem like he had the time to joke around, he was serious and it was that stern look that made Axel want to disappear into the ground with shame and guilt.

"You might be asking yourself why I would bring you here and the answer is simple, I have to erase you to fix Saïx, and to do so you have to be present. The brain needs a concrete image to fight against, and nothing is better than the real deal."

"You're lying. Naminé said that you're trying to strengthen the wall to keep Aqua alive, regardless of what it does to Saïx. I have to break it, that's why I'm here. I can save him."

He was trembling with anxiety, he knew nothing. He could only hope that Ansem's hologram was right and what he did saved Saïx and cured him from the brain damage the experiments had caused him.

Axel had been hearing that he was going to be erased quite frequently and the realization of what that meant hit him like a ton of bricks – they were going to make Saïx forget him, not just the past month or the past year, all of it. He wouldn't even be a footnote in the story of Saïx's life. Axel would be replaced by something else, maybe some of Aqua's memories, and the thought of it made the anxiety grow stronger in his chest.

It petrified him.

"You can't save him, Axel."

"Yes, I can! That's why you've been fighting against me, because you know that I could get him back to normal."

"We fought you to get him back and to keep you from ending his life. What do you think will happen once you break the wall? Do you think that his alter ego Saïx will just crumble and fall off like a shell and reveal your best friend Isa that's been hiding in there all along? You have no idea what damage you can cause him if you break the wall, Axel. He came to us for help, he couldn't deal with his life anymore when he knocked on Xemnas' door. His guilt was eating him from the inside and slowly, but surely, driving him to the very edge of his sanity – all he needed was a final push. The thought of you rejecting him when you got out of jail, or maybe the thought of you finally leaving him behind to elope with the woman he could have gotten rid of the night he murdered Zexion. The small things."

Dr. Even couldn't hold back a soft chuckle at the scared look on Axel's face, "Imagine all of that pent up guilt, anger, frustration that's been repressed for years suddenly released within a split second, the very same second the wall that's been keeping him sane comes down. Boom..." He gestured a big cloud of explosion with his hands and smiled. "It would be nicer to just shoot him in the head, wouldn't you agree, Axel? Or would you like to see him insane? His brain engulfed with colliding memories and trauma on an endless loop until he does himself in? The choice is left to you."

Axel shook his head slowly, his mouth had gone dry and his entire body was trembling. He was starting to feel sick again, but he kept reminding himself of how little that meant right now.

"But, the computer said..."

"Yes, yes, the computer did say." Dr. Even waved it off, "Who programmed the computer, Axel? Ansem. Ansem programmed the computer to do whatever it was he felt was right. The most important question here is; why did Ansem do this? Why, indeed. The man thought he was a savior – he thought that he could save people from themselves. That is why he ended up experimenting on Aqua and when he failed, he became a coward. Suddenly, he wasn't a savior, he was merely a man at the hands of a God that despised him for trying to take his place. All Ansem ever wanted was to undo his mistake, to 'save' Aqua from Xemnas and with the same stone crush Xemnas for making him experiment on Larxene. See how the circle comes together, Axel? Ansem couldn't care less for the person keeping Aqua alive. He just wants to redeem himself by brushing it all under the carpet."

Was he going to be erased from Saïx's memory either way? The question died in his mouth when Dr. Even walked further down the hallway and opened the only door they had come across down here.

"You shouldn't trust a man that sealed your fate when he entwined your memories with Saïx's. He knew what he was doing and he cares for nothing else but for his own salvation." He stepped aside and held his arm out to show Axel into the room, "You have a few minutes before I'll start the procedure. Keep him awake."

Axel walked into the room slowly; he didn't even hear Dr. Even close the door behind him when he looked straight ahead and saw that Saïx stood tied to a semi-wall in the middle of the room with the same blaring images from the hallway on the rest of the walls. He didn't look as powerful as he had done when he had walked into the lounge upstairs. He was shaking and when Axel walked in closer he realized why. There was a pool of water forming underneath him; he was soaked.

"Saïx..." Axel ran up to him and tilted Saïx's head back gently to make him look at him. His teeth chattered from the cold and he clenched his fists to feel his fingers. Axel tried to pull on the restraints of metal, completely forgetting that he was supposed to let Saïx stay here if he wanted to be of any help.

Saïx turned his attention to him slowly, like he was just realizing that he wasn't alone in this room anymore. It caught Axel by surprise when he felt Saïx stretch his head out to rest it against his cheek and he sobbed when Axel moved away slowly to take a better look at him.

"Saïx, what are you doing?"

"You're warm."

Axel shivered when he walked in close again and held Saïx as close as the metal restraints would let him. He knew that he would get cold long before Saïx would get warm, but at least it seemed to comfort Saïx knowing that there was someone else with him even though he didn't seem to be aware of who it was.

"I'll get you outta here. Just, hang in there, okay?"

"I'm glad that you're finally out..." Saïx's voice sounded broken from all the shivering, but Axel had heard him and it took him a second to make sense of what Saïx just had said. He simply nodded quietly and closed his eyes tightly while he tried to come up with anything he could say that would make this situation even slightly better.

"Lea, you have to go before they see you."

Axel stood back enough to look at Saïx. How much of Isa could there be left after four years like this? How much had he been willing to corrupt to stay strong and unscrupulous enough amongst the vultures they called family?

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" Axel asked finally and had to take a deep breath to work through the growing knot in his chest.

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" He echoed. Axel didn't have the courage to ask him whether that question was directed to him or not. He didn't have a good answer, at least not one Saïx hadn't heard before. _I thought I was protecting you_, didn't cut it anymore. To him it was obvious that he had done anything but what he had intended.

It was difficult to separate Saïx from Isa. They had both melted into one person. The ones that had experimented on Isa called Saïx 'Isa's alter-ego', Axel had sort of thought of him the same way; Saïx wasn't a real person, he was a persona created to please the Superior and to intimidate his younger brothers, but truth of the matter was that Saïx was Isa, morphed by the atrocities he had been forced to live through. Saïx's cold exterior had led Axel to believe that there was a barrier that he had to break in order to get to the real person inside him; to get to Isa.

"You've been here all along, haven't you?"

Dr. Even had lied to him, Axel concluded. Saïx could live with his memories, he recognized him and even called him Lea. He knew of his former life, wall or no wall, Saïx was strong enough to keep going and he could do so even without any intervention.

Axel looked through his pockets for the small metal bar that Xigbar had given him and he smiled at Saïx when he found it. He didn't know how long it would take for Dr. Even to come back, but he was sure that he could knock him right out if he tried anything funny.

"Are you up for a crash course in Korean?"

"Why?"

"We're going to South Korea, remember? We were just sidetracked by our past, but we're gonna leave it here, in Japan, and we'll never look back. Can you promise me that...Isa?" He tested that name on his tongue for the first time in years and he glanced at Saïx to see how he reacted to it. Saïx nodded slowly, a small smile playing on his lips.

Axel got one restraint unlocked but he had to hurry to get the other two on Saïx's right arm. He was sure that Xigbar and Demyx would check up on Marluxia and see that his prisoners had escaped, and it wouldn't take long for Xigbar to figure out where Axel had gone.

"Am I in the water tank?"

Axel looked up when it sounded like Saïx was trying to blow away water from his lips and he paled as he stood back.

"Shit."

Saïx was bleeding from his nose again and the blood dripped from his chin and down into the small pool of water underneath him. He leaned back against the wall behind him as Axel hurried up to him and tried to stop the blood from running down by rolling down his sleeves over his hands and hold them against Saïx's nose.

Axel tried to see if there was anything else in the room that he could use to stop the bleeding, but the room was empty, there wasn't even one of those trademark trolleys that he had seen everywhere else. Saïx couldn't even tilt his head back properly because of the wall he was tied to.

"Don't do this," Axel pleaded quietly, "You have to be strong, Saïx. I don't want you to forget me."

Saïx blinked slowly and he seemed so very tired when he looked back at Axel.

"Axel, what are you doing?" Dr. Even closed the door after himself and walked up to them with determinate steps that echoed in the empty room.

"He's bleeding." Axel looked to his side and saw Dr. Even frown when he noticed that Axel had tried to undo the locks on the restraints. He didn't seem at all concerned with Axel's blood soaked jumper or Saïx's lethargic state. "I can't let you do the experiment on him. You just have to fix whatever it is that's making him bleed like this."

"So you decided that it was best to just let him die." Dr. Even crossed his arms, "Is it an act of revenge or mercy, Axel?"

"He remembers me. He remembers my real name, he wouldn't be able to do that if the wall was in effect, right?"

"He doesn't remember his past life, Axel. He just knows of it, but he doesn't feel anything for it because he's detached from himself. And even if he did remember, you wouldn't be able to tell now, Axel. He's dreaming. I never managed to completely take control of his subconscious; I guess that being in the laboratory again sparked some old dreams."

"But he talked to me!" Axel turned to Saïx and looked at him, "Saïx, tell him. Tell him that you're happy that I'm out of jail..."

Dr. Even didn't wait for a reply, he rubbed his eyes and crossed his arms again, "It's a pre-recorded message, Axel. He wanted to leave a message in case Aqua took over his mind completely. I told him not to, but he worked it in there while I taught him the emergency code to the sirens in the labs."

Axel didn't look convinced and the glare he was shooting at him told Dr. Even that he should probably try to show Axel what he meant instead of coming with threats. He walked in closer, but stopped when he could have sworn that Axel had growled at him.

"Did Marluxia call you when you fetched Larxene at the hospital? Did you get a strange message?" Axel's frown was answer enough, "That's one of the pre-recorded messages in his brain. It's either dreams or memories that were vivid enough or repeated enough to survive the indoctrination. It's understandable that he would have dreams of being rescued, or at least given a chance at redemption when seeing that his plan had worked."

Dr. Even reached for a Dictaphone in his pocket and held it up, "He responds automatically to certain things, I'll show you one of them." He selected a file and played it up.

"_The subscribed caller is currently unavailable. Please call later or leave a message after the signal."_

Axel hadn't expected any reaction from Saïx. It was a generic answer from a cell phone with no importance whatsoever, but then the beep came and Axel heard Saïx mumble softly and he leaned in closer to hear what he was saying.

"I can't take this anymore. I'm about to do something very stupid if you don't stop me. Lea, please, help me. I don't want to be here."

"He does it every time too, without exception. This is what you heard in that message, wasn't it, Axel?" He played the file again and Saïx responded just like he had done earlier, with the exact same words, and when Dr. Even played the file a third time, Axel had to put his hands back to muffle Saïx's mumble.

"That's enough. It's just some cheap trick. He answered to us escaping, there's no way that he could have prepared any answers for that."

"Oh, right. Your escape. To South Korea, right?" Dr. Even smirked, "Please, Axel. It's a well-known fact that you and Larxene were going to flee to South Korea. She did share quite a lot with Xigbar back in the day when she was still suffering from a broken heart." He spat out the last sentence like the thought of all those feelings disgusted him, "How original of you to have the same destination the second time around. Quite fitting with whatever dream scenario that one concocted in his mind."

"Fix him."

"Even if it kills Aqua, another innocent human being? Even if it sends Xemnas on a rampage that will kill another hundred innocent human beings? I'm not sure that's like you, Axel. Not anymore, not since the nightmares began. You'd rather save than kill."

"No. Not this time. I want to save him, regardless of the consequences."

"How will you know that I'm doing the right procedure?"

"I'll know with time. If you haven't done the procedure I'm asking you to do, I'll have the rest of my life to hunt you down and make your life a living hell."

"Fair enough," Dr. Even said, "It doesn't matter to me as long as I get to do it."

He walked behind the semi-wall and pulled out a trolley as he reached into his pocket for the three syringes he had brought with him. He took one syringe and held it up to the light to make sure that there were no air bubbles.

Axel looked at Saïx with a frown. He had Saïx's life in his hands, whatever he decided for him now would haunt them both forever. He could act hardboiled towards Dr. Even and spew threats of revenge, but at the end of the day Saïx was the only one at stake.

Dr. Even approached him with the syringe in his hand and Axel glared at him, "What's that?"

"To stop him from bleeding." He put a belt-looking device on Saïx's left overarm and tightened it to get to a vein easier. The sleeve on Saïx's white shirt had already been torn, Dr. Even had already planned ahead. He injected the liquid and put the syringe back onto the trolley as he reached for the other one.

"What does that do?"

"Are you going to have me explain the whole procedure? You'll just be wasting valuable time."

"Tell me what it does or I won't let you use it on him."

"It's a chemical that stimulates hippocampus and the area around it. It's to make him see you for who you are now instead of living in the past where his mind is currently stuck."

"Where are Aqua's memories stored? You said that you had implanted foreign tissue in his brain to let Aqua live through him, remove that."

"Do you think I can just cut into his brain at whim? This is going to be a complicated procedure. I cannot guarantee that Aqua will be completely removed. They've shared a brain for four years now and now that you're involved in it too, it will be difficult to separate memories without hurting Aqua as well."

"She's already dead. If she can't live using her own damn organs then she's done with. Remove her."

"He can't." Naminé's voice came as a surprise to them both and they turned to see Ansem's hologram flicker before them as she took form.

Dr. Even stepped back with a snort, "The system is malfunctioning," he mumbled.

"Xemnas has ordered him to fix Aqua. No matter what you say to him, Axel, he will follow through with his orders and delete you from Saïx's memories. You can't let him do this."

Naminé had a stern look on her face. It was weird to think that the young girl in front of him, the same girl that had tortured him in his sleep for the past four months was in fact nothing but a hologram, and yet, he felt more trust for her than for Dr. Even. Axel wanted to believe that being void of emotions would make her capable of making the right decision for both him and Saïx, she had led Axel all the way here, she had tried to show him the things Saïx had gone through for him and if she had been the one to entwine Axel's memories with Saïx's then she should be able to undo it as well.

"Can you fix him?"

"Axel, you're throwing him into the lion's den," Dr. Even warned, looking increasingly annoyed.

"I can delete you."

"That's a good thing, right?" Axel smiled sheepishly and tried to swallow the building lump in his throat, "It's a good thing." He repeated and caught a quick glimpse of Saïx before he turned back to Naminé. "His mother would've loved this."

Naminé didn't seem to get the reference, her expression remained the same. Dr. Even mumbled something under his breath. It didn't faze Axel that Dr. Even was almost taking a passive approach to what he was about to decide, Dr. Even didn't matter to him, he sort of faded into the background of blaring images on the wall.

"Can't you leave a small memory of me in there?"

"You're harming him, Axel."

He nodded slowly and his sigh was shaky as he came to a decision, "Fix him, Naminé."

She tilted her head slightly and smiled softly as Axel heard that scream he had only heard once before. It was the same scream he had heard in that basement in Ansem's mansion. The sound of it made it almost seem to him like it was distorting the room and he turned around to face Saïx. The blaring images on the wall made him dizzy and he put one hand by Saïx's head to rest against the wall before he passed out.

"Saïx, remember me. At least a little, okay?"

He could neither hear nor see if Saïx replied. The sound was overpowering and the room began to lose all resemblance of form. It looked like they were stuck in a vortex that had torn the room into oblivion and suddenly Axel could feel a strong wind blow through his hair and make a shiver run down his spine. He opened his eyes and saw a sea of black with spots of light. The observation deck he was standing on was illuminated in an orange light and he reached his hands out to grip the handrail in front of him as he recognized the Kobe Port Tower.

The windows were crashed and the wind had tilted the small vending machines that weren't nailed to the floor.

"_You're impossible to forget. Believe me, I try all the time."_

Axel looked to where the voice came from and saw Isa stand further away, looking at the view of the Kobe harbor, maybe trying to find the fishery where they had once worked at. Was this a memory? He had taken Isa to the Kobe Port Tower once on his 20th birthday. It had been their last normal year together, after that year hell had broken loose and whenever it had seemed like they had reached some type of normality, something else happened that once again shook their worlds.

"Isa?"

Maybe this wasn't a memory. Maybe Naminé had given them a window of opportunity to say goodbye while she put everything in order, or maybe he had finally lost what little sanity he had left and he had gone back to the last day of his and Isa's life.

"Did I hurt you?"

The wind blew stronger and the observation deck changed colors together with the column that spiraled up and lit its surroundings with the colors of the rainbow. He couldn't see Isa's face properly and it felt like there was an invisible wall between them that made it impossible for Axel to come closer.

"_Not any more than I hurt you."_

He could see the waves crash against the pier, but the wind up here drowned out the sound and made everything beneath them look like a big picture. Kobe was like he remembered and yet it was completely different now. He was losing his best friend to a force greater than him and he believed that there was no one to blame but himself.

"Do you think we can run away from this? We could run through our memories and stay somewhere where Naminé can never find us." Axel kept his gaze firmly onto the harbor and hoped that the wind masked the heaviness in his voice.

"_Isn't that a movie?"_

"Yeah. We could run away like they do in the movies." Axel took a deep breath and he blinked quickly to work away the tears building in his eyes. He wanted to reach out for Isa and run, get them both into safety, far away from all of this, but he knew that it was futile. He couldn't make decisions for Isa, he couldn't force him into recreating the life they had lived and lost. Not anymore.

"Isa, let me see you again, even if it's just once, let me see you."

Silence. For a moment Axel thought that maybe he had gone deaf, the silence weighed as heavy as his heart felt and he realized that he was holding his breath once Isa spoke again.

"_In a year,"_ he said, _"On my birthday. We can meet here." _

The tower started to break apart and sucked into an invisible vortex above the top of the tower. Axel tried to run up to Isa, but the vortex was bending both space and time, and it didn't matter how much he tried, he couldn't move forward.

"Isa, that's a promise you have to keep! Isa!"

The scream drowned out both his voice and his thoughts. It was stronger than the vortex and as everything disappeared, becoming black, the scream kept echoing in his mind like the nightmare that had haunted him nights on end. He didn't see that nightmare again, because in the end, that nightmare had become his reality. This was his final stop and there were no more trains to catch.


	20. The Tide Pulls from The Moon

****************************Title:******** ********************Last Train**************************  
><strong>Author:<strong> **************************nikki_ntm**************************  
><strong>Beta reader:<strong> **************************Shattered Apocalypse**************************  
><strong>Chapters:<strong>************************** 20/20  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Drama/Adventure/Suspense**********************  
><strong>Rating:<strong>**************** ******M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.**************************  
><strong>Characters:<strong>************ **************Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).**************************  
><strong>Pairings:<strong>**** **********************Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.**************************  
><strong>Setting:<strong> **************************Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

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><p><strong>Chapter 20: The Tide Pulls from the Moon<strong>

Even the most silent of cars could disrupt the peaceful silence in this picturesque house of minimalistic overabundance. It wasn't cluttered with furniture and decorations, but everything that was there had been carefully chosen, and this flawless exterior of their home made Aqua wonder if there was anything in this house that was a reflection of her as she walked toward the hallway to get the door.

"I'll get it."

Aqua slowed down when she felt her husband take her hand in his. Sometimes she found it difficult to assimilate that this was her life that she was living. She could wake up and wonder how this came to be, and she would whisper her husband's name to see if he would respond to it for no particular reason other than to see that soft smile on his face.

She watched him open the door and greet whoever was there to pay them a visit. It worried her sometimes that he would spend too much time with work and leave her behind, despite the fact that he did everything he could to be by her side. She knew that it was strange to feel this unexplainable dependency on someone, but there was nothing she could do to prevent it.

Dr. Even stepped inside, wearing his ever present lab coat as he rested his hands onto his back, eyeing his surroundings like he hadn't been over enough times to know their home by heart.

"Good afternoon, Aqua. You seem well."

"Good afternoon, doctor."

"She felt a bit drowsy after the last treatment, but she hasn't had any relapses."

Xemnas walked up to her and rested his hand on her hip. Aqua had been told that she had fallen ill and that her fever had caused a few delirious moments. Dr. Even had given her a special treatment to make sure that she didn't suffer anything like it ever again. The treatment had ended recently after nearly a year and Aqua was glad that she wouldn't have to take anymore medication.

"I've signed up for a couple of evening courses at the university."

"How exciting. Are you preparing for a profession?" Dr. Even stared at her like he was studying a lab rat, but Aqua had learned to cope with it since she had seen so much of Dr. Even during her time with her husband.

"No, it feels like that time is gone. I'm past thirty already." Aqua smiled and shrugged lightly, "This is mostly to get out of the house and meet new people. I chose a course in math and another in political history."

Dr. Even nodded, "That is very good. A bit of both."

"Doctor, would you like to sit out in the garden? Aqua has taken good care of it."

"Why not?"

"Terra, would you and the doctor like some tea?" Aqua looked at both Xemnas and Dr. Even as they turned around halfway down the living room.

"Sure."

Xemnas looked after Aqua as she disappeared into the kitchen and started to prepare the tea. He followed Dr. Even out on the porch where he sat down and eyed the garden quickly before he turned back to Xemnas.

"Well, there is nothing else to report other than that our mission has been accomplished. If it hadn't been for the small ethical problems of some, I would be up for a Nobel-prize."

"Are you saying that Aqua will no longer break down?"

"There is no reason to now, is there? Saïx and Aqua are now two independent persons with the only exception that Aqua is still leeching off Saïx in a way. The small device in both their brains allows Aqua to use parts of Saïx's brain that are no longer functioning in her own."

Dr. Even avoided using the name Xemnas preferred to be called in his house, it felt strange calling him after a fabricated memory, and at the same time he avoided slipping in front of Aqua.

Xemnas gave a slow nod at Dr. Even's explanation. They had gone through a lot of trouble reprogramming Ansem's hologram to make it do what they wanted it to do. The first step had been to get Axel where they wanted him before they could continue with the next step, which was to make the hologram undo the entwining of Axel's and Saïx's memories. That had been the main challenge, it was that misstep that had nearly cost Aqua her life and it had jeopardized this entire project.

"What if he meets Axel?"

"There will be no consequence. Saïx will feel a sense of déjà vu at most, but the fact of the matter is that he has no recollection of Axel's existence, there is no longer a wall to protect, Aqua is safe and the only thing that we need to do is to keep Saïx alive to keep her well. With the life he's living now that won't be a problem, I imagine."

"She resembles him at times."

"It's to be expected, isn't it?"

"It makes me question her feelings for me."

"Aqua would never stab you in the back for your position in the family."

Xemnas glared at him and Dr. Even quickly sat up straight and bowed his head slightly. It was clear that he had grown far too accustomed being in Xemnas' company that he even felt that he had the right to say whatever came into his mind.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, sir." Dr. Even coughed lightly, "What matters is that we succeeded. You have reached your goal, you will most certainly grow old with Aqua and with this worry out of the world you can reassume your impeccable leadership in the family. They ruffled a lot of feathers, sir, and the family needs to reestablish its former order."

Aqua came out, holding a tray with tea and biscuits for the three of them. She put the tray on the table and reached them a cup each.

"What are you talking about?" She sat down with a sigh.

"Work," Xemnas said, "It would only nauseate you if we kept talking about it now. Speaking of things that nauseate you, Mrs. Kanda invited us to a charity event next weekend. She also mentioned how she would want you to help her picking out the decorations."

Aqua narrowed her eyes, "What did you say?"

"That we would attend and that she would have to talk to you about the decorations."

"Terra! You should've just nipped it at the bud, tell her that I don't want to sit around watching her treat people like trash. She made two waiters cry last time in front of the rest of the staff, and I'm not having that again."

Dr. Even observed the married couple bicker about their charity event. It wasn't only Aqua who had changed, he noticed. Xemnas became the false person that he had created within Aqua's mind whenever he was around her and to Dr. Even it was interesting to see how Xemnas chose to be that person, even without having his brain altered.

**~ooo~**

The day had gone from cloudy to sunny to almost raining and then back to just being cloudy again. Axel's mood seemed to be changing with the weather, he couldn't tell how many times he had gone to feeling sad for thinking that Isa had broken his promise to feel stupid for thinking that Isa would remember a promise he had forced upon him while he was breaking.

He had been there with the sunrise early in the morning; he didn't want to risk missing Isa even though the possibilities of him showing up were next to none. He had seen busloads of tourists come and go, boats had stopped by the pier and left again, and the man selling ice cream had even walked up to him to offer him something to eat.

He had been left in that basement floor after Naminé had done her job. He had run around the facility like a maniac, looking for Saïx and looking for Arlene, but there had been no one there. There had been no one to turn to during the first months after that either. He had been alone for the first time in his life and as he looked back on it now, he couldn't tell how he had managed to survive it without turning to booze or anything else that would take the edge off loneliness. At times he had thought of returning to the family with his head hung in shame and his tail between his legs, but the thought of starting over with Isa had kept him going.

Two months ago, when the wait had nearly driven him up a wall, he had gone to a place he had nearly forgotten in his despair. The doctors that had helped him once upon a time found a way to help him once more and he was sent to a church nearby where young delinquents were sent to learn a profession all the while they learned to cultivate the land, to keep violence out of their relationships, as well as coping strategies to not fall back into old patterns.

When he looked at his watch again and realized that he had been waiting for twelve hours, he got up with a resigned sigh and tried to shake off the feeling of disappointment to not end up like those salarymen that found it fitting to jump in front of trains.

It just wasn't meant to be. Their story had ended years ago, on a day just like this one.

And then he saw him walk by.

He almost called after him. He nearly ran after him. He thought of giving him a big hug and tell him that he had managed to wait for an entire year, but all of it would probably end up frightening him because he had no clue that out there was someone, a certain Lea, who had been his best friend once upon a time.

"Sir!" He hurried up to Isa as fast as he could and dug in his pockets until he found a wrinkled bill of low value, "Sir, you dropped your money." He tapped Isa's shoulder and he turned around with an oblivious look on his face. He was holding a Frappuccino from a 7-eleven down the road and he looked down at the money Axel was reaching him.

"I don't think that's mine."

"But I saw you drop it."

Isa eyed him suspiciously and took the bill slowly almost like he was waiting for Axel to change his mind. It gave Axel time to come up with another excuse to keep him though, and Axel was happy for any and all opportunities fate sent his way.

"I'm sorry, sir, I – your name isn't Isa by any chance, is it?"

"Who are you?"

"Um, I don't mean to freak you out or anything but there was a fortune teller here earlier and I had her predict my future and she told me that I had to sit here and wait for Isa. She, uh… she said that this man Isa would drop the power of man on the road by the vast sea."

He tried not wince at the bad, half-baked lie he was trying to feed Isa, but it was difficult not to when Isa was looking at him like he was growing a second head.

"The power of man is money and this is a road by the vast sea." He motioned towards the sea and tried to smile.

"1000 yen is hardly considered to be power nowadays, is it?"

"One man's trash is another man's treasure, no? C'mon, I've been waiting all day for Isa so that I can go up the tower." His brain wasn't connecting thoughts the way he wanted it to, it was making it difficult to come up with proper lies although he had told himself time and time again that once he met Isa there would be nothing but honesty for him.

"Why would you need me to go up the tower?"

"So your name _is_ Isa?" Isa shot him a glare, "Right. Well, if I didn't wait I would be run over by a car on my way home, I would be unable to work and then I'd be thrown out on the street where I would be hit by another car. It was just one awful thing after another, but hey, you're here now."

"How do you know I'm going up the tower?"

"Because you look like a tourist and tourists in Kobe generally go up the tower."

"Are you going to mug me? I think I've seen you somewhere."

"No, I just want to accompany you up the tower." Axel smiled at him and tried to keep it together, "It's your birthday today, right? The fortune teller told me."

"Is she here now?"

Isa looked around to see if he could find any fortune tellers while Axel looked at him with a heavy heart. In a way he was still waiting for Isa to look at him and laugh while he told him that this was a joke, that he had missed Axel as much as he had missed him and that he was expecting a birthday gift.

"She left a couple of hours ago. Maybe she'll be here tomorrow. I can take you to her if you want to. If you let me."

"Hmmm," he hummed and gave Axel a look. "Let's go up the tower first."

He didn't seem scared, just curious. Axel knew that he had said that he could settle with seeing Isa once more, but once his one time was over he knew that he wouldn't be able to let go even though the look in Isa's eyes kept reminding him that he was no one in Isa's life anymore.

"I'm Lea, by the way."

"Hello, Lea. Are you from around here?" He smiled, amused.

"Born and raised in Kobe. I know this city like the back of my hand. How about you?"

"I lived here a couple of years, but I moved. I live in Kyoto now."

Axel gave a slow nod, "Are you ill or something?"

"I'm fine, thanks." Isa side-eyed him as they walked towards the tower's entrance, "And you?" He obviously thought that Axel was being weird, but he had to make certain that Isa was in good health. He couldn't see a reason for Isa to want to live in Kyoto where one of Ansem's main laboratories was located.

"I'm fine now. I didn't think you'd show up."

"Welcome to Kobe Port Tower! How many tickets would you like to purchase?" The woman in the booth bowed her head and smiled at Isa as she looked back up again.

"Two." He reached her the ill-treated bill Axel had given him along with two 100-yen coins. The woman smiled at Axel as well as he walked past the ticket booth and after Isa into the elevator.

Axel hoped that there wouldn't be other people going up now, but the elevator quickly filled up with people eager to go to the top of the tower and see the entire city. Isa had taken the stairs last time they had been here. He hadn't been good with small spaces after that incident at the fishery, but he didn't seem to be bothered at all now. He looked out through the glass doors and saw the space grow between him and the firm ground underneath his feet.

He had cut his hair short, he was dressed like a typical tourist with the "I heart Kobe"-shirt, and the shorts that came just underneath his knees. He had brought a thin jacket with him in case it got cold, he even had a backpack. The dragon was gone. They had rid Isa of everything from his former life, Isa was someone else now. He had been liberated from the demons that had haunted him and Axel figured that he could be happy for that, even though there was one demon he wished had remained in Isa's memory.

The elevator stopped and the door slid open, letting the awestruck tourists out on the observation deck. Isa walked up to one of the large windows, overlooking the glass building right by the tower.

"What brings you to Kobe?" Axel stood beside Isa, not sure of what answer he was expecting.

"Felt like the right thing to do. I needed a break from work and the bus trip here was cheap and I've always wanted to come here. There's something about this place."

Axel was bursting at the seams. All he needed was a bone thrown his way and that had been it. A year's agonizing had come to this and he was certain that never in his life had he needed to keep his self-control as much as now. The euphoria he felt at that small recognition of Isa's past became nothing more than a soft chuckle and a wide smile.

"You like to travel?"

"Yeah. I've been thinking of going on a road trip but none of my friends are up for it, especially not now when everyone is trying so hard to keep their jobs and save up on money."

"I'm actually going up north, to uh, Echizen. It's a couple of hours by car, but I figure it's going to take longer because I want to see the sights. You could come with if you want to – if you grow tired of me you could always catch a train back."

His heart was beating so hard that he had to lean against the handrail and take a deep breath to calm down. This was a delicate situation, one misstep and he could scare Isa away forever. He didn't want to come off as pushy but he knew full well that he was failing. It was difficult to seem casual when everything he valued was on the line.

"When?"

"Whenever. Y'know, as long as it's sometime soon. At the end of the month or something." He paused to quickly look at Isa and see whether he was seriously considering his offer or if he was just making small talk. "I have a couple of friends in Echizen. At this time of year they have a garden filled with apples and the macaque monkeys come down from the forests to eat the apples that have fallen to the ground. The thing is that with the heat of the sun, the apples have fermented and the alcohol makes the monkeys drunk. It's quite a sight to behold."

Isa laughed. It was a genuine laugh, it wasn't restrained or weighed down by anything else, and by the end of it there was no soft sob that had once been a reminder that emotions had bothered him, good or bad, they all threatened to break his façade. Isa had been a ticking bomb for a long time, his downfall had begun long before he met Xemnas, Axel knew that much, and thinking back and realizing how many hints there had been was one of the main things his brain preoccupied him with, but now he found himself staring at Isa, shamelessly taking in the sight of the smile that lingered on his face.

"We could go out on the small roads and see Lake Biwa and maybe make a stop at Tsuruga Bay."

"Have you done that trip before?"

"Well, yes and no. I was in a bit of a hurry the first time, I didn't get to see all of it. But I loved what I did see. There are small villages down the road, they look like something taken out of a postcard with vast fields of greenery, surrounded by mountains and hills. I'm sure you'd love it. It's nothing like the city."

"What's the catch?"

"There is no catch. You want to travel and I don't want to travel alone."

"What if I turn out to be a psychotic murderer?" Isa challenged this stranger, oblivious to the brief mental hiccup Axel suffered at the question.

"Well, I'll have to cross that bridge when and if I get to it, besides, I don't discriminate. If you want you're more than welcome to join me up north. You'll get to see Japan and you'll have a competent guide with you."

Isa looked at him with an amused yet questioning look. He wasn't saying no at least.

"Let's meet the fortune teller tomorrow first," he said before he turned to the binoculars that had just gotten available.

Axel didn't mind. He could sit with him all day outside of the Kobe Port Tower waiting for a fortune teller that didn't exist as long as Isa didn't decide to go and leave him behind. He was buying himself more time and he held the hope that Isa would warm up to him and give him a chance to get to know him again.

**The End**

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><p><strong>AN: **As this is the end for this story, I'd like to thank everyone who have taken their time to read, review, and even message me. I didn't have any expectations when I decided to post this story, and I'm glad that so many have enjoyed it. Your support means a lot. I'm also gonna take the opportunity to explain (in short) my view on characterization and actions (some were a little upset that I was turning Axel into "the bad guy", amongst other things). I firmly believe that the road to hell can be paved with good intentions, and I also believe that good people can do bad things for various reasons. Moral ambiguity is interesting to me ^^

I also know that many wanted to know what became of Arlene. Sadly, when she walked away from the family the last time, she also walked out of my head, thus the open ending for her.

Finally, a quick plug-in: Kingdom Hearts Big Bang Challenge is in need of beta/alpha readers as well as cheerleaders. If you're interested, look up khbigbang at Livejournal and/or Dreamwidth for more information about what it means to be any of those things, sign-up is open until June 15th.


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